|
Makerere University Research Repository >
Institute of Social Research (MISR) >
Research Articles (MISR) >
Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item:
http://hdl.handle.net/123456789/1943
|
| Title: | Reassessing popular participation in Uganda |
| Authors: | Golooba-Mutebi, Frederick |
| Keywords: | Governance - Uganda
Politics and Government - Uganda |
| Issue Date: | 10-Mar-2004 |
| Publisher: | John Wiley and Sons |
| Citation: | Golooba-Mutebi, F. (2004). Reassessing popular participation in Uganda. Public Administration and Development, 24: 289–304 |
| Abstract: | The 1980s saw the emergence of popular participation as a mechanism for promoting good governance in developing countries
Good governance was seen as crucial to efforts to improve the welfare of poor people in countries where elites had hitherto
benefited disproportionately from policies conceived at the top without reference to ordinary citizens at the bottom. Donor
pressure helped accelerate the change. In Uganda these developments coincided with the rise to power of a government that
sought to democratise the country’s politics. A major plank in the democratisation agenda was the establishment of a participatory
system of local administration in which ordinary citizens, facilitated by local councils, would participate in public affairs
and influence the way government functioned. These aspirations coincided with those of the donor community and enthusiasts
of popular participation. This article is an account of the evolution of village councils and popular participation from 1986,
when the National Resistance Movement came to power in Uganda, to 1996. It shows that while at the beginning the introduction
of local councils seized the public’s imagination leading to high levels of participation, with time, public meetings as consultative
fora succumbed to atrophy due to participation fatigue and unwarranted assumptions about the feasibility and utility of
popular participation as an administrative and policy-making devise. It calls for political history and the socio-cultural context
to be taken into account in efforts to promote participation. |
| URI: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/pad.309
http://hdl.handle.net/123456789/1943 |
| ISSN: | 0271-2075 |
| Appears in Collections: | Research Articles (MISR)
|
Files in This Item:
| File |
Description |
Size | Format |
|---|
| Frederick Golooba-Mutebi_Misr_article.pdf | | 134Kb | Adobe PDF | View/Open |
|
All items in DSpace are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved.
|
