Decentralization as a Breeding Ground for Conflicts: An Analysis of Institutional Conflicts in Malawi's Decentralized System

This article examines the impacts of poorly designed decentralisation programs on institutional conflicts at the Malawian Local Government level. The objective is to interrogate into the extent to which improperly construed decentralisation in Malawi has increased local level institutional conflicts. Decentralization has been trumpeted as an effective tool for increased peace and conflict resolution. However this paper has found that if poorly executed as in the case of Malawi, decentralization can be an instrument for the generation, exacerbation and influence of conflicts at the organizational level. In this regard, institutions that came with decentralization degenerated into instruments of increased conflicts. More specifically, the findings for this paper show that in Malawi poorly designed decentralization has led to conflicting relationships between the central government and local governments; councillors and members of parliament; traditional authorities and councillors; assembly secretariat and councillors; and among councillors.