The interface between Local Level Politics, Constitutionalism and State Formation in Malawi through the lens of the Constituency Development Fund (CDF)

Malawi adopted devolution or democratic decentralisation as the strategy for implementing its decentralisation policy reforms seen as a logical conclusion to the transition to democracy since May 1994. The decentralisation policy reforms are intended to concretise the realisation of democratic local governments provided for in article 146 of the constitution. Following this arrangement, the local government has become a deliberative assembly with legislative and executive powers recognised and embedded in the constitution.

The paper explores how local level politics has influenced, shaped and nurtured the culture of constitutionalism within the framework of local governance including its effects on state formation processes. This is achieved by critically scrutinising the operative dynamics of the Constituency Development Fund (CDF) which was introduced entirely by an administrative decision as a key component of the local governance framework. The study was carried out in Lilongwe and Balaka districts using qualitative methods of data collection. Key informant interviews were also carried out at the national level with relevant government ministries and departments, international and local NGOs and donor agencies.

In conclusion the author argues that:

• The complexity of the resulting web of relationships among the different stakeholders is making it extremely difficult for the state to establish hegemony in the countryside in a way that it would be the sole arbiter of social control over its entire area of official jurisdiction.
• The unintegrated nature of the CDF is a great constraint to decentralisation policy reforms contributing positively to processes of state formation.
• The political significance of the chiefs within the framework of local level politics is further complicating the situation.
• The combined net effect of these developments is that it has further entrenched the politics of patronage, which is one of the defining characteristic features of Malawi’s politics.
• The impasse in the decentralisation policy reforms, reinforced to some extent by the introduction of the CDF, is more or less leading to the deinstitutionalisation of the efforts that had begun to give form and shape to the local governance processes with the potential to impact positively on state formation processes.