Democracy, Morality and Imagination: the Importance of Elections in a Chewa Village in Rural Malawi

这项研究将在2019年大选期间调查马拉维一个农村切瓦村的政治身份和更广泛的社会想象之间的关系。在黑斯廷斯·班达博士领导下的30年独裁统治之后，马拉维于1994年举行了第一次多党选举。然而，政府政策在很大程度上未能改善大多数人的条件，而且在一系列腐败丑闻之后，对政客的信任非常低。此外，投票往往是地区性的，政党很少在其区域基础之外获得大量支持。然而，选举参与率仍然很高，有近71%的符合资格的选民参加了2014年的选举。这项研究借鉴了最近对马拉维政治(Candea，2011；Curtis and Spencer)和选举研究(Spencer，2007；Banerjee，2014)的人类学思考，以及哈里·恩格伦(Harri Engund，2006,2011)关于马拉维自由主义和民众不满的研究，试图理解投票和民主对阿切瓦村成员的重要性。特别关注非精英的道德想象和不满，它们与政治认同的关系，以及它们产生的媒介和环境。这项研究旨在为关于民主和选举的规模虽小但正在增长的人类学做出贡献。以及探索自由主义和后殖民国家、中南部非洲政治、媒体、道德叙事和伦理等主题

The study will investigate the relationship between political identities and wider social imaginaries in a rural Chewa village in Malawi during the 2019general elections. After 30 years of dictatorship under Dr Hastings Banda, Malawi conducted its first multiparty elections in 1994. However, governmentpolicies have largely failed to improve the conditions of the majority of the population, and, after a series of corruption scandals, trust in politicians isvery low. Moreover, voting tends to be very regional with parties rarely gaining large support outside their regional bases. Yet participation in electionsremains very high, with close to 71% of eligilble voters participating in the 2014 elections. Taking a cue from recent anthropological reflections on thepolitical (Candea, 2011; Curtis and Spencer) and studies of elections (Spencer, 2007; Banerjee, 2014), as well as Harri Englund's (2006, 2011) workon liberalism and popular grievances in Malawi, the research will attempt to understand the importance of voting and democracy to members of achewa village. Paying particular attention to non-elite moral imaginaries and grievances, their relationship to political identity, and the mediums andsettings they are generated in. The study aims to contribute to the small but growing anthropology on democracy and elections. As well as exploringthemes of liberalism and the postcolonial state; South-Central African politics; media; moral narrative and ethics