From Dictatorship to Democracy

Despite three and a half decades of post-independence economic and social reform, during which the government worked in partnership with donors such as the World Bank, International Monetary Fund, United Nations and other organizations, Malawi remains desperately poor, with a highly unequal income distribution. This text presents an analysis of development strategies in Malawi from independence in 1964 to the present day. This analysis is divided into three sub-periods - 1964-1981, 1981-1988 and 1989 to the present - and pays particular attention to economic policies and reform and the political economy context in which they have been developed. Individual chapters focus on economic and political developments in Malawi, the economic reform programme, the adjustment period up to 1988, policy reforms under the three SALs in the agricultural sector, and empirical testing and support for many of the hypotheses and arguements forwarded in the book. The book then takes a closer look at the government's overall record of compliance with policy reform conditions in all sectors under each SAL.