Parliamentary Democracy in Uganda: The Experiment that Failed explores Uganda's malaise of armed dissidents, repression of political parties, military adventurism in neighboring countries, grinding poverty in the countryside and political uncertainty arising from accumulated failure of successive regimes to cultivate a culture of peaceful transfer of power. In light of this, the democratization process envisaged at the time of independence has been frustrated. The author sets out to unravel the cause of that frustration and impasse by tracing the beginning of Uganda's political institutions, particularly the central government organs established in the last century. The new institutions and political organs were basically designed to forge Uganda ahead as a united and stable nation. An attempt is made to critically examine the foundations upon which these institutions were built. It is argued that the institutions were laid under a hostile environment of political diversity and multicultural heritage without an inbuilt balancing mechanism. Accordingly the book recounts the difficult process of nation building undertaken in Uganda, with particular emphasis on the problems encountered in reconciling the new political institutions with the entrenched conservative traditional institutions in the South of the country (the Buganda Agreement of 1900 and other agreements with the kingdoms of Ankole, Tooro and Bunyoro). The author acknowledges the contribution made by the leaders of various political parties towards the task of nation building. It was a task undertaken amidst forces of feudalism and religious animosity. They were men and women of extraordinary foresight who had a clear vision of a new independent Uganda curved out of peoples of diverse cultural backgrounds. This book provides yet another vision of the future and suggests ideas of how to overcome the political impasse that has bedeviled the country since independence.

The Role of Parliament

A study of legislative development in Africa which explores why variations in the extent of legislative authority and performance across the continent are only partially related, if at all, to the overall level of democratization. Constraints that have retarded the development and power of legislatures across Africa, and how members of some legislatures are breaking free of those constraints, are analyzed. The impact of the legislative branch on the political process in six emerging African democracies is reviewed.

Among African countries, Uganda is unique in its affirmative action program for women. In the late 1980s, President Yoweri Museveni announced his belief that Uganda's successful development depended on increased gender equity and backed his opinions by setting several women-centered policies in motion, including a 1989 rule that at least 39 seats in the Ugandan parliament be reserved for women.In this fascinating study, based on in-depth interviews with both male and female parliamentarians, women in nongovernmental organizations, and rural residents of Uganda, Sylvia Tamale explores how women's participation in Ugandan politics has unfolded and what the impact has been for gender equity. The book examines how women have adapted their legislative strategies for empowerment in light of Uganda's patriarchal history and social structure. The author also looks at the consequences and implications of women's parliamentary participation as a result of affirmative action handed down by the president, rather than pushed up from a grassroots movement.Although focusing on Uganda, Tamale's study is relevant to other African and non-African countries grappling with the twin challenges of democracy and development.

Recent seismic shifts in Congo and Rwanda have exposed the continued volatility of the state of affairs in central Africa. As African states have shaken off their postcolonial despots, new leaders with sweeping ideas about a pan-African alliance have emerged -- and yet the internecine struggles go on. What is Africa's problem? As one of the leaders expressing a broad and forceful vision for Africa's future, Uganda's Yoweri K. Museveni is perhaps better placed than anyone in the world to address the very question his book poses. In 1986, after more than a decade of armed struggle, a rebellion led by Museveni toppled the dictatorship of Idi Amin, and Museveni, at 42, became president of Uganda, a country at that time in near total disarray. Since then, Uganda has made remarkable strides in political, civic, and economic arenas, and Museveni has assumed the role of "the eminence grise of the new leadership in central Africa" (Philip Gourevitch, The New Yorker). As such, he has proven a powerful force for change, not just in Uganda but across the turbulent span of African states. This collection of Museveni's writings and speeches lays out the possibilities for social change in Africa. Working with a broad historical understanding and an intimate knowledge of the problems at hand, Museveni describes how movements can be formed to foster democracy, how class consciousness can transcend tribal differences in the development of democratic institutions, and how the politics of identity operate in postcolonial Africa. Museveni's own contributions to the overthrow of Zaire's Mobutu Sese Seko and to the political transformation of Uganda suggest the kind of change that may sweep Africa indecades to come. What Is Africa's Problem? gives a firsthand look at what those changes might be, how they might come about, and what they might mean.