Political Legitimacy Threatened: The Return of Presidentialism

Abstract

If the period leading up to 1996 was one of great expectations and remarkable achievements, the five years (1996 to 2001) that followed were marked by a steady contraction inside the NRM in particular and the political system in general. The marginalization of veteran NRM supporters, such as Winnie Byanyima and Kizza Besigye, symbolized this developing illiberalism as the regime began to show intolerance for dissenting views and opinions. Not surprisingly, these changes had the effect of weakening the fundamental principles of “no-party” democracy, namely, accommodation, candidature by individual merit, and broad-basedness. As a result, it became doubtful that a democratic transition was possible under the Movement system and pressures for the reintroduction of multiparty politics mounted. The NRM in turn exerted stricter political control, drifted away from guided democracy toward a co-opted form of transition, and in so doing began distancing itself from the practical imperatives of representativeness, consent, and political competition. This shift presaged the reemergence of neopatrimonialism and its twin institutions of clientelism and presidentialism. The latter, which refers to the concentration of power in the office of the president, began to undermine the constitutional efficacy of other state institutions, such as the legislature, and to erode the foundations of democratic legitimacy.