ABSTRACT
WE HAVE INDICATED that Buganda as a modernizing autocracy possessing instrumental values was able to adapt herself to and invite the modernization of all her institutions except the hierarchical principle of government with legitimacy stemming from the Kabaka. Demands to make the Lukiko more representative, a constant theme as far back as 1923, did not appear to challenge the principle of legitimacy; rather, they enabled the Kabaka to become familiar with a wider range of issues than before, especially those which his subjects thought important. Representation in the Lukiko was thus regarded as a means of providing information and knowledge to the Kabaka's government and to exert leverage upon the chiefs, whose tendency to identify their own interests with the interests of Buganda grew as the "establishment" expanded. Representation was not regarded as a principle of legitimacy which might eventually replace the autocratic principle.
