Abstract

Against the claim that democracy influences good policy due to competition, this thesis argues that competition in young fragmented democracies brings insecurity to ruling regimes and this influences introduction and implementation of short term policies including poorly designed subsidy policies aimed at getting votes. A comparative analysis of political economy factors influencing subsidy policies in the area of agriculture and housing was conducted for the two countries: Malawi and Tanzania, the former being a more competitive but fragmented party system while the latter, a dominant party system. The study used a case study strategy, and collected both primary and secondary data using document analysis, key informant interviews and focus group discussions sources and methods helped to reduce bias in the results. Situating mandates within the democratic environment where competitive elections determine who gets the mandate to rule, this study found that higher electoral competition within a fragmented party system in Malawi has brought insecurity to the ruling regimes and influenced instability of the policy marked by deviations from main development and policy frameworks. Stronger institutions influenced by strong leadership, grounded ideology and dominant party system in Tanzania have formed the bedrock for security to the ruling regime to formulate and implement policy with minimal distraction from pluralist forces. The mandate theory in Malawi has, therefore, influenced not only higher propensity for subsidies in the social sector but also distracted the design and implementation of such programmes. In Tanzania, mandate policies have not had an equal distractive effect on the main development frameworks. This study introduces party fragmentation to the debate on whether competitive party systems produce better policy or not. This charachteristic of competitive party system changes the perspective of analysing party systems and policy consequencies as more care has to be taken to avoid overgeneralisation of phenomena. Malawi’s continued prioritization of the mandate policies over medium and longterm development frameworks reawakens the debate on compatibility of long term planning and democracy. More research effort needs to be directed towards policy approaches where public goods are prioritized to enhance solidality as well as community and individual capacities so that people can afford to acqure commodities on their own or collectively.

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

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