Abstract

Malawi’s transition from dictatorial rule to multiparty democracy in 1994 generated optimism that the regime change would bring a democratic or participant political culture. With the onset of multiparty politics, the number of registered civil society organizations engaged in the teaching of democracy rose to over 250 and consequently raised people’s expectations that democracy consolidation would take root within a short time. Although civic education on democracy has been the preoccupation of civil society organizations, commentators have lamented that fourteen years after democratising, Malawi still embraces a subject political culture whose citizens are not active participants in the political process. This study, therefore, sets out to investigate what civic education by civil society organizations has contributed to the consolidation of democracy. To do this, the research assesses the nature of messages on democracy that the people internalised after learning from the democracy educators. The methods used for teaching are also analysed. The research is largely qualitative in nature and was conducted through focus group discussions, key informant interviews and a study of secondary data. The study findings show that political participation during the inter-election period is very minimal although civic education on democracy has been ongoing. The implication is that people are mainly subjects and not active participants in the political process. The study attributes this situation to the nature of democracy messages and methods of teaching democracy employed by civic education providers. It has found that the messages have predominantly touted elitist representative democracy and not participatory democracy. Consequently, people have only regarded political participation as taking part in elections and development projects without political considerations. The study further found that the dominant teaching techniques used by civic education providers were not active and participatory. In a country like Malawi where people had been under a repressive regime for over thirty years, the emphasis on non-participatory methods only helped to entrench a subject political culture. People are therefore averse to self-mobilization and formation of groups to advance their demands to the political and government representatives. To a great extent, these findings confirm the assertion that Malawi’s political culture is subject and not participant. Above that, they further show that this is not entirely due to the short period that Malawi has been a democracy, but due to the nature of messages on democracy and the methods used to impart such messages.

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School	: School of Law, Economics and Government
Issued Date	: 2010

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