The Functions of Political Parties: In Theory and in Malawi

Abstract

The paper applies the concept of 'party functions' to the case of Malawi. The purpose of the paper is discuss how well our understanding of the roles of political parties in established democracies can be used to study the functioning of political parties in a new democracy where the institutional, social and economic settings are fundamentally different from those in established Western democracies. Some functions, like electoral mobilization, are performed by parties in Malawi as elsewhere. However, functions like candidate nomination and interest aggregation are only partly taken care of by Malawian parties. Most deviating is the role of government formation and the role of opposition where internal divisions some times lead parties to be on both sides at the same time. A major explanation for the deviations in functions is found in the inadequate development of political parties as organizations. Parties also have additional functions as distributors of goods and services to individual and communities.