The politics of strengthening local government institutions in Zambia

Today many African states are formal democracies (in the sense of having governments that are the result of formal elections), but they are not liberal democracies (in the sense of guaranteeing civil liberties and permitting an unhindered alternation of power). They are rather what Fareed Zakaria has come to term illiberal democracies. This study explores the impediments to the development of liberal democracy in one such case---Zambia---which is categorized as an illiberal democracy given its (1) lack of civil liberties, (2) lack of alternation of power, and (3) lack of free and fair elections.; Most scholars of democracy in Africa have focused on the question of the successful processing of central government elections. This study hypothesizes that the main obstacles to the realization of a liberal democracy in Zambia lie instead in the functioning of local government institutions. The argument is made therefore that international actors (e.g. donor states, INGOs) need to start paying closer attention to the effect that development policies have on local governments.; Following a review of Zambia's pre-Independence history and the failure of post-Independence decentralization efforts, the study reviews Zambia's current government reform measures, such as the Public Service Reform Programme and the draft National Decentralisation Policy. These sources are supplemented by interviews conducted with Zambian government officials, and representatives of donor states, INGOs and NGOs in Zambia. Local government policies and finances are also compared to those of developed democratic states.; One of the main findings is that the various players involved in the process are focused on a great many activities other than democratic governance including, notably, health care and education. For the moment, national decentralization policies in these two areas have left local government leaders with many responsibilities that they are not adequately prepared to deal with. The study argues that decentralization is pursued by governments as a mandate of structural reform from international organizations, without adequate attention to the flow of resources to local governments. While indigenous variables are considered the study concludes that the politics of strengthening Zambia's local governments extends well beyond Zambia's borders.