Civil Society and Democracy: A Zambian Case Study

Abstract

At the beginning of the 1990s, theorists talked of an 'international momentum' of democracy, and focused on the central role of civil society in advancing the democratic process. This approach was used to explore the transition in Zambia, but a close reading of events before and after Zambia's 1991 election indicates that 'older political logics' do not disappear merely because authoritarian regimes are challenged by forces from wider society. In Zambia, a range of civil actors were excluded from the transition negotiations by an agreement between Movement for Multi-Party Democracy (MMD) leaders and Kenneth Kaunda at the little known Mulungushi (constitutional) Conference in July 1991. This exclusion confirmed the weakness of civil society, and laid the basis for an authoritarian resurgence under the Third Republic MMD government in which a restricted social group established its dominance. Within eighteen months of taking office, observers were speculating on the MMD's institutionalisation of a de facto one-party state as 'older political logics' reasserted themselves. This period laid the foundation for subsequent political events as an ever-increasing range of actors were excluded from the political arena.