Reconstructing the State: Challenges of Legitimacy and Power Consolidation

Abstract

Between 1986 and 1991, the political situation in Uganda improved markedly, compared to the desperate conditions that characterized the pre-1986 period. Despite the insurgencies in the north, much of the country was in a mood of political and infrastructural rehabilitation coupled with an economic renaissance. This mood grew out of a fresh political outlook in civil-military relations based on what appeared to be a new brand of political (NRM) and military (NRA) elites and an emerging progressive ideological orientation. The new military elites were under a strict code of conduct, to which they adhered very well—at least in ways that were qualitatively different from those of past armies in Uganda. The initial policy outcomes of the NRM government (security, economic growth, popular democracy, etc.) became an important springboard from which the NRM could claim some measure of popular consent, despite not having called for presidential elections. Whereas the authority of the NRM had initially been questionable, given their unconstitutional ascent to power, successful “introductory” programs (coupled with early local elections in 1989) did translate into a normative template for the rightful exercise of power. This was the starting point in answering the question raised at the beginning of this study, namely, how a new government authenticates its right to govern, having risen to power through extraconstitutional means and having vanquished a despotic regime such as Obote’s in 1986. The analysis in later chapters considers the challenges of nurturing and consolidating these policies, particularly those formulated after 1996; in the early years, however, there was clear evidence of state capacity reconstruction.