The Radio Polity: Construction-Site Democracy, Technocratic Domination and Bureaucratic Patriotism in Uganda

Abstract

In the Rwenzori region of Uganda, radio drives the “bureaucratisation of the world.” By encouraging the creation of “listeners’ forums,” it produces pernickety technocrats and watchful citizens. Old patterns of leadership, based on patronage and the endorsement of a pedagogic mission to enlighten the masses, are renewed through the spirit of neoliberalism. These radio shows breathe new life into the State and bring it back in the centre of development. However, in the radio polity, its benefits are limited to « concerned citizens », those who reject, precisely, the idea that State interventions are a universal right, and those who demonstrate their seemliness through the bureaucratic attire. For those, the listeners’ forums should be understood within larger dreams of modernity and moral rebirth, where bureaucracy becomes the vehicle of a patriotic ambition of civilisation, equality and standardisation.