No-Party Democracy? Ugandan Politics in Comparative Perspective
Giovanni Carbone | | ISBN: 978-1-58826-630-9
$58.50 |
| 2008/259 pages |
DESCRIPTION
At a time when multiparty reforms were sweeping the globe, Uganda opted for a controversial, no-party democratic model. The country’s politics over the past two decades thus provide an extraordinary opportunity for addressing the many questions—theoretical, empirical, and comparative—that the notion of a no-party system of elected government raises. Carbone’s analysis of how a no-party electoral regime actually works (or doesn’t) in Uganda fills a gap in both democracy studies and the study of African politics.
Are political parties an essential element of democracy? Or can a no-party system constitute a viable democratic alternative? Giovanni Carbone examines the politics of Museveni’s Uganda to illustrate the achievements, contradictions, and limitations of participatory politics in the absence of partisan organizations.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Giovanni Carbone is lecturer in political science in the Dipartimento di Studi Sociali e Politici of the Università degli Studi di Milano.
CONTENTS
- No-party Democracy
- Building a No-Party State in Uganda.
- The Political Economy of Support for the New Regime.
- Museveni’s Political Trajectory.
- The Movement: A Partisan Organization in Disguise.
- The State of the Old Parties in a No-Party State.
- The Electoral Politics of No-Partyism.
- The Parliamentary Politics of No-Partyism.
- The Demise of a Democratic Model.
"This fair and lively appraisal offers a comprehensive review of President Museveni's attempt to replace political parties in Uganda with a 'no party' system."—Oliver Furley, Coventry University.