Money Matters: Financing Illiberal Democracy in Uganda

Abstract

This paper discusses the financing of Uganda’s illiberal democracy with reference to the 2011 multiparty elections. To describe Uganda as an ‘illiberal democracy’ is to suggest that it is a hybrid polity gravitating between semi-democracy and semi-authoritarianism ‘along the spectrum of hybridity’ (Trip, 2010: 3). Hybridity has persisted despite the fairly regular presidential and parliamentary elections since 1996. The duality of democratic and despotic characteristics questions the viability of elections as avenues for deepening constitutional liberalism. As Fareed Zakaria (1997; 2003) notes, the increase in elections in certain polities (in Latin America, Asia and Africa) has not translated into deepening constitutional liberalism. The problem in hybrid polities is that ‘democracy is flourishing, constitutional liberalism is not’ (Zakaria, 1997). This suggests that elections (which are central to the theory and practice of democracy), have not necessarily enhanced the rule of law, the separation of powers, and respect for basic liberties of speech, assembly, and property.