Delivering Democracy? Comparing Catholic Bishops’ Advocacy for Democracy in Malawi and Zambia, 1987–2022

Abstract

As national leaders of the Catholic Church, bishops were widely recognized as ‘midwives’ of democratic transitions in many African states in the 1990s. This paper expands understanding of bishops’ subsequent political engagement by systematically analyzing their attempts to ‘deliver’ democracy during the difficult decades following transition. Focusing on Malawi and Zambia between 1987 and 2022, we situate and analyse bishops’ most influential public communications: pastoral letters. The article first illuminates the bishops’ public conceptualisations of political participation as a Christian duty, and the roles they prescribed for politicians, citizens, and Christian leaders at the outset of democratisation. We then document the bishops’ consistent commitment to civic education and voter mobilisation across countries, alongside context-specific efforts to defend or advance democracy, which led to some variation in priorities and rhetorical appeals across countries. These findings challenge influential models of religion-state relations, raise new interdisciplinary research questions, and offer insights for democratic advocates.