Engaging with elections: Ethno-regional mobilization, demands for federalism, and electoral politics in central Uganda

Abstract

How do ethno-regional movements in electoral autocracies engage with electoral politics? This article argues that such engagement follows the general logic of social movement mobilization but differs from it in degree because of difficult political conditions. As movements in such contexts often face restricted political opportunity structures and command limited tangible resources, they need to compensate by drawing on intellectual and communicative resources to promote their demands in ways that overcome the challenges of sensitivity and particularism associated with their interests and identities. This study examines how Buganda Kingdom in Uganda has promoted its demands for federalism around three general elections and analyses how the Kingdom has addressed the challenges of sensitivity and particularism. The article concludes that the Kingdom's efforts to overcome the sensitivity of their claims were not supported by an ability to transcend the particularism of their demands, and thus could not be sustained.