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Articles

Vol. 12 No. 1 & 2 (2017)

The contested role of civil society in the democratization of Uganda: are state and civil society organizations bedfellows?

DOI:
https://doi.org/10.70060/mak-mawazo-2017-321
Submitted
April 21, 2026
Published
December 31, 2017

Abstract

Civil society organizations (CSOs) have played key roles in bringing about democratization in several countries in the world. Civil society organizations in Uganda largely operate around social spaces such as markets, churches, cooperative societies, common resources, and other social forms of  organizations mainly because the formal economic sector is small. Civil society-state engagement in Uganda in the area of  democratization is characterized by complacency and cohabitation. Like in many parts of  Africa, authoritarian tendencies of  the state have forced civil society to operate underground, further weakening this timid and feeble sector. A close examination of  civil society in Uganda indicates that it has been active, championing the cause for the democratization process by engaging and monitoring state institutions. Nevertheless, CSOs-state relations remain unclear, suspicious and many times, antagonistic.