
Through An Analysis Of The Recent Political History Of Tanzania And Uganda, Wealth, Power And Authoritarian Institutions Offers A Novel Explanation Of Why Authoritarian Parties And Legislatures Vary In Strength, And Why This Variation Matters. Authoritarian Political Institutions Reflect-and To Some Extent, Magnify-elite Power Dynamics. They Are A Terrain Of Contest, An Arena Where Power Is Tested, Negotiated, And Re-ordered. While There Are Many Sources Of Elite Power, The Book Centres On Material Power, Exploring How The Socio-economic Foundations Of A Regime Affect Its Institutional Landscape. This Analysis First Considers How Diverse Trajectories Of State-led Capitalist Development Shape Divergent Patterns Of Wealth Accumulation Across Regimes. Where Accumulation Is More Closely Controlled By State And Party Leaders, As Was True In Tanzania Until Economic Liberalisation In The 1980s, Rival Factions Remain Subdued. Ruling Parties Can Then Build Up Relatively Strong Institutional Structures And Parliament Remains Marginal. Conversely, Where A Class Of Private Wealth Accumulators Expands, As Occurred In Tanzania After The 1980s And In Uganda After The National Resistance Movement Took Power In 1986, Rival Patron-client Factions Can More Easily Form. Factional Rivalries Then Channel Through The Ruling Party And Into The Legislature, Simultaneously Eroding Party Institutions And Encouraging Greater Legislative Strength. Finally, The Book Reflects On The Significance Of A Stronger Legislature, Particularly For Distributive Politics. It Details Mechanisms Through Which Legislatures, As Terrains Of Contest, Contribute To Both Regressive And Progressive Redistributive Outcomes. To Support Its Analysis, The Book Draws On Extensive Fieldwork In Tanzania And Uganda-- Provided By Publisher.
This book investigates why authoritarian parties and legislatures exhibit varying levels of institutional strength and how these differences influence political outcomes. Michaela Collord, a scholar of African politics, utilizes a comparative framework to examine the political histories of Tanzania and Uganda. The central argument posits that authoritarian institutions are shaped by the material power dynamics of ruling elites, specifically how state-led capitalist development dictates the formation of rival factions and the subsequent strength of legislative bodies.
What You Will Find
Scope Limits
Scholars in the field of African politics recognize this work as a rigorous contribution to the study of authoritarian institutional variation. Readers frequently note the academic density of the prose and the depth of the primary fieldwork used to support the author's arguments.
Page Count:
0
Publication Date:
2024-01-01
Publisher:
New York : Oxford University Press,
ISBN-10:
0191945331
ISBN-13:
9780191945335
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