ABSTRACT
In spite of being commonly classified as an authoritarian regime, Uganda tends to get high scores on local government indexes. Such a high score on local government indexes is surprising because the current government and president (in 2017) won power after a military victory in 1986. The chapter starts with the hypothesis that the government is likely to have developed a strategy of manipulating political decentralisation through overwhelming the opposition in a massive system of local governance. Over the years, the national government has developed a system of representative subnational governments that fulfil all crucial requirements but which simultaneously also makes it difficult for the opposition to win large-scale victories as there are too many seats to fight over. First, there are several levels of local government, and there is also a continuous process of dividing districts into smaller units. All elections are open for contestation, but the government party has clearly more access to campaign funding. Second, there is also an elaborate system of quotas, not just for women, but also youth, disabled and older persons. Elections for these special seats tend to be biased in favor of the ruling party. Subnational governments are thus an arena for participation and, to a lesser extent, contestation but also a vehicle for control, information gathering and distribution of spoils. Uganda is clearly an inclusive autocrat.
