Political Parties and their Manifestos: Inferring Party Policy Positions in Malawi since 1994

Abstract

Since the reintroduction of multiparty democracy in 1993, political parties in Malawi have been at the centre of ‘ideology and policy positions debate’. It has been argued that political parties lack substantive ideologies, and that their policy positions are almost identical. This article makes further contribution to this debate. It mainly focuses on differences and similarities in issue saliency across two main parties and across three general elections, 1994, 1999 and 2004 as reflected in their electoral manifestos. Second, the article looks at policy commitment by examining whether ideas in the electoral manifestos are reflected in decisions taken by the parties in power. In this second aspect, the article only looks at whether the intentions of the manifesto are brought onto the government agenda as opposed to examining the merits or demerits of a particular policy commitment. With the evidence presented, the article demonstrates that there are some small but significant differences in issue salience across parties and across elections. The article concludes that on the account of electoral campaign, electoral manifestos do not play an important role of attracting voters. Party identity, patronage, and clientelism continue to dominate the electoral campaign in Malawi.