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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:The Social Power of Religious Organisation and Civil Society: The Catholic Church in Uganda
Author:Kassimir, RonaldISNI
Year:1998
Periodical:Commonwealth and Comparative Politics
Volume:36
Issue:2
Pages:54-83
Language:English
Geographic term:Uganda
Subjects:Catholic Church
political systems
political change
Religion and Witchcraft
Politics and Government
External link:https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/14662049808447767
Abstract:To the degree that civil society is invoked as an independent variable in explaining democratization and democratic consolidation in Africa, the failure systematically to incorporate the power resources of social organizations in the analysis greatly limits the claims of the civil society approach. The consequences of ignoring organizational capacities are both the perpetuation of an inflated sense of the political efficacy of empirical 'civil societies' and the rendering of 'civil society' as a weak analytical tool. The Roman Catholic Church in Uganda provides a revealing case study for exploring the power of an organization to mobilize and socialize. By looking at the Church through the lens of social power and the ways in which internal organizational dynamics affect capacities for mobilization and socialization, the author demonstrates the limits of putting current efforts at political reform in Africa in the frame of civil society. He argues that while Ugandan Catholics are socially and politically active, especially at the local level, socialization and mobilization have largely occurred outside official church organizations, networks and world views. Notes, ref., sum.
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