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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:The Military and Democracy: The Case of Uganda since 1962
Author:Okoth, P. GodfreyISNI
Year:1995
Periodical:East African Journal of Peace and Human Rights
Volume:2
Issue:2
Pages:175-188
Language:English
Notes:biblio. refs.
Geographic terms:Uganda
East Africa
Subjects:democracy
military regimes
civil-military relations
History and Exploration
Politics and Government
Military, Defense and Arms
Law, Human Rights and Violence
law
armed forces
imperialism
history
Abstract:This article analyses the history of the military in the precolonial, colonial and postcolonial periods in Uganda. In precolonial Ugandan societies, there was no clear demarcation between military participation and political engagement. Under colonialism, the military was clearly designed to buttress the colonial establishment. Its primary task was the maintenance of internal security. At independence in 1962 the Ugandan army was nothing short of a colonial military organ. Up to 1966, there was no marked attempt by the military to emerge in the political limelight. However, the struggles of the elite and the confrontational nature of the political system led the military to reassume its colonial role and from 1967 onwards, the Ugandan State tended towards the militarization of politics as a strategy for crisis management, culminating in Idi Amin's 1971 coup. During the Amin regime, the crisis borne out of the military's muzzling of democracy reached its peak. The Uganda National Liberation Front/Army (UNLF/A), the 'liberators' who contributed to the collapse of the Amin regime, also clearly proved that if there was to be a positive role for the military in the transition to democracy, it was far from being realized. The National Resistance Movement/Army's (NRM/A) seizure of State power in 1986 was equally undemocratic. Ref.
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