DEMOCRATIC TRANSITION IN MADAGASCAR, MALAWI, AND MOZAMBIQUE THESIS Presented to the Graduate Council of Texas State University-San Marcos in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Master of ARTS by Hans M. Rakotomanga, M.A. San Marcos, Texas December, 2011 DEMOCRATIC TRANSITION IN MADAGASCAR, MALAWI, AND MOZAMBIQUE Committee Members Approved: __________________________ Dr. Robert Gorman, Chair __________________________ Dr. Edward Mihalkanin __________________________ Dr. Augustine Agwuele Approved: ___________________________ J. Michael Willoughby Dean of the Graduate College COPYRIGHT By Hans Rakotomanga 2011 FAIR USE AND AUTHOR’S PERMISSION STATEMENT Fair Use This work is protected by the Copyright Laws of the United States (Public Law 94-553, section 107). Consistent with fair use as defined in the Copyright Laws, brief quotations from this material are allowed with proper acknowledgement. Use of this material for financial gain without the author‟s express written permission is not allowed. Duplication Permission As the copyright holder of this work I, Hans Rakotomanga, authorize duplication of this work, in whole or in part, for educational or scholarly purposes only. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First and foremost, I would like to acknowledge Mr. Roland Bordelon; the man who had the vision of bringing a Malagasy student to the United States in the quest for higher education. Secondly, I would like to thank my family back in Madagascar along with my new American friends and family in Louisiana and Texas. Their continued support helped me achieve this research. And lastly, this thesis would have not been completed without the help of my research committee members: Dr. Robert Gorman, Dr. Edward Mihalkanin, and Dr. Augustine Agwuele. I sincerely thank them for their critique, wisdom, and patience throughout the thesis process. This manuscript was submitted on September 20, 2011. TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ................................................................................................ v CHAPTER I. FRAMEWORK AND METHODOLOGY ........................................................... 1 Introduction .................................................................................................................. 1 Organization of thesis ................................................................................................... 3 Framework ................................................................................................................... 4 II. MALAWI .......................................................................................................... 14 Pre Colonial Period .................................................................................................... 13 Colonial Period ........................................................................................................... 14 Independence .............................................................................................................. 16 Banda‟s Rule .............................................................................................................. 17 Democratic Transition ................................................................................................ 20 Elections ..................................................................................................................... 24 Political Parties ........................................................................................................... 27 Civil Society ............................................................................................................... 32 Challenges .................................................................................................................. 35 III. MOZAMBIQUE .............................................................................................. 38 Pre Colonial Period .................................................................................................... 39 Colonial Period ........................................................................................................... 40 Independence .............................................................................................................. 41 Civil War .................................................................................................................... 43 Democratic Transition ................................................................................................ 48 vi Elections ..................................................................................................................... 49 Political Parties ........................................................................................................... 55 Civil Society ............................................................................................................... 57 Challenges .................................................................................................................. 60 IV. MADAGASCAR ............................................................................................. 62 Pre Colonial Period .................................................................................................... 63 Colonial Period ........................................................................................................... 66 Independence .............................................................................................................. 68 Democratic Transition ................................................................................................ 72 Elections ..................................................................................................................... 83 Civil Society ............................................................................................................... 85 Political Parties ........................................................................................................... 91 V. SIMILARATIES AND DIFFERENCES .......................................................... 99 Colonial Experience ................................................................................................. 100 One Party Dominance .............................................................................................. 102 Different Democratic Transitions ............................................................................. 102 Conclusion ................................................................................................................ 110 BIBLIOGRAPHY ................................................................................................ 114 vii CHAPTER I FRAMEWORK AND METHODOLOGY Introduction The 1990s marked an optimistic era in Africa‟s political history. After nearly three decades of authoritarian rule, often characterized by “political repression, corruption, human rights abuses, and economic mismanagement,”1 leaders of various African nations finally participated in multi-party elections. Since then, these countries have faced a daunting challenge; transitioning from a simple electoral to a consolidated democracy. This thesis examines three specific sub-Saharan countries: Madagascar, Malawi, and Mozambique. All three nations have experienced a democratic transition and nearly two decades of open elections consisting of different competing parties. So how have they fared? Should we now consider them consolidated democracies? When examining three pivotal facets used in assessing the quality of democracy: elections, 1 Guy Martin, “Preface: Democratic Transition in Africa,” A Journal of Opinion 21, No. ½ (1993): 6. 1 2 political parties and civil society; it is apparent that there still are pitfalls existent in their paths towards consolidation. Though all three countries have completed great strides in political liberalization, the gap between electoral democracy and consolidated democracy has not been bridged. The discussion of democratic transition is a pertinent subject in contemporary African politics. All three countries examined in this thesis have followed a similar history: a long period of colonial rule, national independence around the 1960s, an Authoritarian regime, and an eventual democratic transition around the mid 1990s. Current transformations of authoritarian regimes in these cases, however, should not be mistaken for fully fledged consolidated democracy. As Michael Bratton observes, “political liberalization and democratization are simultaneous and complementary,”2 but each is ultimately an autonomous process. The former is simply the disassembly of authoritarian regimes, while the latter requires deliberate construction of democratic principles. Madagascar and Malawi experienced a dictator with a dominant party for more than two decades after gaining independence from their colonial powers. All three nations have also held multi-party elections since the mid 1990s to break hegemonic 2 Goran Hyden and Michael Bratton, Governance and Politics in Africa (Boulder, CO: Lynne Reinner, 1992), 29. 3 authoritarian practices. When examining several components of democracy beyond the electoral dimension, however, it is evident that all three governments are not yet in their consolidated form. Organization of thesis The first chapter of this thesis will lay out the major framework used to discuss the current state of democratic transition for our three countries. There are certainly many definitions and types of democracies