Tag Archives: democracy

By Andrew M. Mwenda The pathologies of Uganda’s LC system and the need for a new conversation on how to reform it On the temple of Apollo at Delphi is inscribed the motto “meden agan” (nothing in excess) in honour of the ancient Greek statesman, Solon (circa 638 to 558 …

By Andrew M. Mwenda How it has facilitated a politics that has undermined the ability of public institutions to serve the common good To explain the dysfunctions in the public sector in Uganda, we need to understand how political power in our country is organised, how it is exercised and …

By Andrew M. Mwenda Lessons for Africa from the daily killings of young black teenagers in America at the hands of racist police officers The ink had not yet dried on the grand jury decision that exonerated police officer Darren Wilson for the cold-bloodied murder of 18-year old Micheal Brown …

By Andrew M. Mwenda How a tiny minority of trade unionists have used politics to wrest control from the majority of the fund’s subscribers. In his State of the Nation address, President Yoweri Museveni said government was going to borrow money from the National Social Security Fund (NSSF) to finance …

By Sergei Karaganov A few years ago, it was fashionable to worry about the challenge that authoritarian-style capitalism. Today, the problem is not only economic The world is currently being shaken by tectonic changes almost too numerous to count: the ongoing economic crisis is accelerating the degradation of international governance …

By Andrew M. Mwenda The lack of basic values as the basis of politics in Uganda is the source of our country’s constant state of crisis. “It is not easy to stand apart from mass hysteria, to argue against something that everyone – especially the most respected political leaders, academics …

By Andrew M. Mwenda The assumption behind a lot of literature on democracy is that people would care more about their welfare in elections Africa’s poor performance at delivering public goods and services impersonally to anonymous citizens is often attributed to the continent’s democratic deficit. Democratic theory expects that if …

By Andrew M. Mwenda The disastrous collapse of public services under NRM is a product of the way in which democracy has evolved rather than its absence On Saturday September 24, I went to my old school, Busoga College Mwiri, to attend celebrations marking its 100th birthday. It was a …

By Andrew M. Mwenda In 2005 Museveni gave Shs5m to each MP to remove presidential term limits; in 2010, he paid Shs20m per MP to pass the Cultural Leaders Bill. Last week, I was in Johannesburg to attend a World Bank conference on the South-South dialogue on natural resources. I …

By Andrew M. Mwenda Local councils have undermined the effectiveness of public administration without fostering the expected accountability dividend. In 2000, Frederick Golooba-Mutebi gave me a copy of his PhD thesis written at the London School of Economics titled “Decentralisation and Development Administration in Uganda.” It is a sobering account …