2009
DOI: 10.1177/0192512109102436
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Turnaround: The National Resistance Movement and the Reintroduction of a Multiparty System in Uganda

Abstract: This article addresses the process behind the decision of the National Resistance Movement (NRM) to reintroduce multiparty politics in Uganda. Restrictions on party activity were introduced when the NRM assumed power in 1986 and were upheld in a referendum in 2000. In March 2003 the NRM u-turned on the issue and agreed a return to multiparty politics in Uganda. The article seeks to explain why the NRM leadership sanctioned a transition to multiparty politics and, secondly, how the NRM leadership sought to rema… Show more

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Cited by 65 publications
(32 citation statements)
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“…Uganda's economic technocracy has come under increased pressure as the perceived threat to the ruling coalition from elections has heightened, as illustrated with the increased macroeconomic instability around the 2011 elections (Golooba-Mutebi and Hickey, 2013). The rise of political competition has been used by the president to deepen his hold on power, whereby the return to multi-party politics in 2005 was seen as a means of ensuring greater discipline within the NRM (Makara et al, 2009), and through constitutional reforms that ended the two-term limits on presidential incumbency in the same year. This dominance was further underlined at the 2011 elections, which saw both party and president reverse the polling trends of the 2000s by securing large majorities, with the president in late 2014 also securing the sole candidature of his party ahead of the 2016 poll.…”
Section: Beyond New Institutionalism: How Different Political Settlemmentioning
confidence: 99%
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“…Uganda's economic technocracy has come under increased pressure as the perceived threat to the ruling coalition from elections has heightened, as illustrated with the increased macroeconomic instability around the 2011 elections (Golooba-Mutebi and Hickey, 2013). The rise of political competition has been used by the president to deepen his hold on power, whereby the return to multi-party politics in 2005 was seen as a means of ensuring greater discipline within the NRM (Makara et al, 2009), and through constitutional reforms that ended the two-term limits on presidential incumbency in the same year. This dominance was further underlined at the 2011 elections, which saw both party and president reverse the polling trends of the 2000s by securing large majorities, with the president in late 2014 also securing the sole candidature of his party ahead of the 2016 poll.…”
Section: Beyond New Institutionalism: How Different Political Settlemmentioning
confidence: 99%
“…Although we would expect Uganda to be performing poorly on this front, given its rating as a 'semi-authoritarian' polity, a weakly institutionalised form of multi-party politics and a legislature that is constitutionally subservient to the executive (Makara et al, 2009;Tripp, 2010), the process of passing legislation around oil in Uganda has actually been highly contested. This did not occur along strictly partisan grounds, as in Ghana, but with a coalition of government party MPs joining forces with opposition counterparts within a wider move to apparently protect the national interest.…”
mentioning
confidence: 99%
“…The removal of term limits from the constitution took place as part of a larger process of opening up political space to allow other political parties to compete for power with the NRM, which went on to register as a political party. Museveni's about-turn to become a strong advocate of multi-party politics was mainly to shore up a ruling coalition that he felt had become too internally fractious in the absence of a political opposition (Makara et al, 2009), by precipitating the exit of dissenters. …”
Section: The Making Of a Broad-based Dominant Party Political Settlementmentioning
confidence: 99%
“…Makara et al (2009) point out that the decision by the NRM to engineer a return to multiparty politics (while driven more by internal factional conflicts than by donor pressure) was coupled with constitutional changes designed to actually entrench the powers of the executive and the authority of the central political leadership. Makara (2010) further argues that the return to multiparty politics has not resulted in democratic consolidation, nor have elections advanced democratic freedoms.…”
Section: Puritanism Authoritarianism and 'Partnership Institutions' mentioning
confidence: 99%