Zambia

Abstract

Zambia displayed distinct, observable democratic backsliding between 2011 and 2021, linked both to elite contestation and participatory rights. Autocratization resulted from the deliberate use of legal mechanisms to enhance executive power, stifle the opposition, silence the press, and undermine civil society forces. The manipulation of rules was legitimized by the use of legal strategies that have their origin in the country’s 1991 Constitution. Through all constitutional amendments, formal rules that provide extra powers and discretion to the executive remain, even as politics outwardly appears to be governed by democratic principles. Zambia’s democratic backsliding was closely linked to the changing relationship with its international partners as they no longer acted as “agencies of restraint” on the government’s policymaking, and the quality of governance declined as a result. The donor withdrawal weakened the political influence of civil society due to both cutback of funding and the reduction in political space for civic associations, protected by the patronage of the donors. The election of opposition candidate Hakainde Hichilema in August 2021 may have ended this episode of backsliding as, for the third time in the country’s history, power changed peacefully through the ballot box. To what extent the 2021 elections will move Zambia away from authoritarianism is uncertain as the current state of the country’s political institutions leaves it vulnerable to further episodes of backsliding.