This paper analyses the performances of authority that Malawian MPs enact in their constituencies, and the meanings and strategies that shape their constructions of these performances. Performances of authority are analysed in terms of two major aspects. Firstly, and following Fenno (1978), they are seen to constitute a “presentation of self” to constituents – a projection of the MPs’ qualities as a human being and a bid for legitimation on this basis. While such presentations are indeed shaped, at a very broad level of generalisation, by pressures and constituent expectations that all MPs experience (such as to be a provider of private goods to individuals, as well as a bringer of development projects to the constituency), it is argued that MPs strategize and respond quite differently to these pressures in ways that are obscured and flattened by standard “neopatrimonial” accounts of politician-legitimation.
Drawing upon detailed observations of MPs in their constituencies and extensive interviews with current and former MPs conducted during 18 months of PhD fieldwork between 2015-17, I explore the key dimensions of similarity and difference in respect of constituency performances. I suggest that variation results from a complex range of individual and contextual factors, not the least of which is divergent personal visions amongst MPs of the proper role of a constituency MP. This brings us to the second fundamental aspect of MPs’ performances: the didactic presentation of what that individual considers (or at least seeks to establish as) their constituency role; views and strategizing about which vary in important ways that impact upon performances of authority. It is argued, in sum, that MPs’ constituency performances reflect a concern on their part not only to legitimise themselves in the eyes of constituents, but also to (re-)shape, at least to some extent, the terrain upon which this legitimation takes place. The paper will conclude with some preliminary reflections on the success or otherwise of these efforts. This research was conducted as part of my PhD looking at the job of Member of Parliament in Malawi, funded by the Economic and Social Research Council.