Time to Polish the Pearl of Africa - Institutional Design and Conflict Management in Uganda
(2005)Department of Political Science
- Abstract
- Democratization of plural societies is an oft-cited source of identity-based conflict. It has come to a point where concepts such as transition and stability sometimes are polarized by scholars and politicians and this is the case in Uganda. This study challenges the notion that elections must underpin identity-based conflicts and presents a more optimistic view on the role of democratic institutions. Through the prism of theories on polyarchy, identity-based conflicts and institutional design, the Ugandan case is analyzed in terms of democratic status, arguments for the country's no-party system and, above all, the possibilities of institutional re-design. A more general summary of research in the field of institutional design in plural... (More)
- Democratization of plural societies is an oft-cited source of identity-based conflict. It has come to a point where concepts such as transition and stability sometimes are polarized by scholars and politicians and this is the case in Uganda. This study challenges the notion that elections must underpin identity-based conflicts and presents a more optimistic view on the role of democratic institutions. Through the prism of theories on polyarchy, identity-based conflicts and institutional design, the Ugandan case is analyzed in terms of democratic status, arguments for the country's no-party system and, above all, the possibilities of institutional re-design. A more general summary of research in the field of institutional design in plural societies is also given. The result of this case study shows how a change in Uganda's electoral system can facilitate, though not guarantee, a relatively peaceful transition to democracy. Concurrently, the discussion emphasizes the contextual dependence of the outcome of systems design. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
http://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/1330838
- author
- Carlsson, Kajsa
- supervisor
- organization
- year
- 2005
- type
- M2 - Bachelor Degree
- subject
- keywords
- Electoral Systems, Ethnicity, Institutional Design, Conflict, Uganda, Political and administrative sciences, Statsvetenskap, förvaltningskunskap
- language
- English
- id
- 1330838
- date added to LUP
- 2005-06-20 00:00:00
- date last changed
- 2005-06-20 00:00:00
@misc{1330838, abstract = {{Democratization of plural societies is an oft-cited source of identity-based conflict. It has come to a point where concepts such as transition and stability sometimes are polarized by scholars and politicians and this is the case in Uganda. This study challenges the notion that elections must underpin identity-based conflicts and presents a more optimistic view on the role of democratic institutions. Through the prism of theories on polyarchy, identity-based conflicts and institutional design, the Ugandan case is analyzed in terms of democratic status, arguments for the country's no-party system and, above all, the possibilities of institutional re-design. A more general summary of research in the field of institutional design in plural societies is also given. The result of this case study shows how a change in Uganda's electoral system can facilitate, though not guarantee, a relatively peaceful transition to democracy. Concurrently, the discussion emphasizes the contextual dependence of the outcome of systems design.}}, author = {{Carlsson, Kajsa}}, language = {{eng}}, note = {{Student Paper}}, title = {{Time to Polish the Pearl of Africa - Institutional Design and Conflict Management in Uganda}}, year = {{2005}}, }