Abstract

Institutions are at the center of any development process. This study makes an analysis of the role institutions play in the process of agrarian change. Additionally, the study provides a conceptual linkage of institutions and agrarian change, starting with the classical debates of agrarian change and development and how institutional formations have been at the core of such development processes. The study uses Malawi development processes as a case study of an agrarian economy where, since its inception as a British Protectorate in 1891, development processes both at community and national levels have centered on agriculture. Furthermore, this agrarian economy and structure has been institutionally determined. The study identifies some critical junctures and the path dependent nature of institutional change in agrarian transformation over time. It analyses four economic and political eras starting from the colonial period (1900 – 1964), the immediate post-colonial period(1965 –1979), the structural adjustment period (1980 – 1994) and the Post adjustment period (1995 – 2017). The study uses qualitative data collection methods including archival and literature analysis, focus group discussions and key informant interviews. For key informants and focus groups, respondents were identified using purposive sampling and snowballing techniques. Using the theory of historical institutionalism, the study underscores that every pathway to development has a historical trail and that it depends on the historical and contemporary understanding of the players who is institutions and individauls involved in these processes to conceptualize future scenarios of development. The study also contributes to the scholarship and to our understanding of institutional change especially using endogenous change processes. This has been done by integrating ideas from constructivist innovation studies to institutional change using the notion of sustainable niche management. This helps to further explain endogenous institutional changes and path dependency in the process of institutional change. The study has attempted to answer the question why the achievement of food security still remains elusive in Malawi despite numerous efforts to deal with hunger and agrarian transformation.

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School	: School of Law, Economics and Government
Issued Date	: 2022

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