Paper short abstract:

This paper explores debates over the appropriate behavior of aspirant and elected parliamentarians during the Zambian elections of 2012. It considers views expressed in interviews with the candidates, in surveys on desirable traits of 'leadership', and during talk-radio shows.

Paper long abstract:

This paper explores debates over the appropriate behavior of aspirant and elected parliamentarians during the Zambian elections of 2012, comparing constituencies in 'rural' Eastern Province, and the urban spaces of the capital Lusaka.

It compares the views of candidates themselves about how to get elected, survey data on the desirable traits of 'leadership', and the perspectives put forward by 'citizens' and 'leaders' on performance, accountability, loyalty and mobilisation on interactive radio shows.

It argues firstly (perhaps unsurprisingly) that, inspite of the celebrated opposition 'Don't Kubeba!' campaign to undermine the patrimonial campaigning by the incumbent party, notions of the 'social worker' politician remain central in many places. This concept of an MP charged with 'delivery' competes with a 'liberal' image of the MP as legislator and watchdog and a 'radical' image of the MP as people's tribune.

Secondly, it argues that interactive radio tends to reflect rather than transform dominant patterns of social relations in any given space, serving as a resource for the transformation of popular consciousness rather than simply a source of democratic pressure on the authorities. As such, mediated interaction with mass audiences is a commodity to be bought, sold, and controlled. Thirdly, the paper argues that these logics typically enforce themselves on the many donor-sponsored 'good governance' shows. Whilst imagined by their sponsors as generating counteracting liberal logics of accountability, technocratic and non-partisan framings often limits their impact on popular consciousness and facilitate capture by patrimonial styles of mobilisation that share an apolitical focus on 'delivery'.