EXTERNAL ROLE IN DEMOCR.\.TIC TR.\.NSITION: A STUDY OF THE INFLUENCE OF IFis IN SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA SINCE THE END OF THE COLD WAR

Abstract

The practice of political conditionality under the governance agenda of the World Bank and the IMF has been correlated with significant political openings in Sub-Saharan Africa in the nineties. Subsequently, sobering trends in political conditionality since the tum of the century were associated with stagnation and relapses in the process of transition in the region. The thesis seeks to explain whether and to what extent have these changes in the aid regime played out in domestic politics and through which actors or media. Through the cases of Kenya and Malawi, the thesis seeks to compare whether extreme economic vulnerability (the case of Malawi) directly translates into donors' leverage over domestic politics, and to what extent does a country's strategic importance (the case of Kenya) mediate or ameliorate external influence on democratization.