Populism, Ideology and Discourse in the Global South
Ekoutiame Ahlonkor Ahlin
Contact: ekoutiame.ahlin(at)fu-berlin.de
Doctoral researcher, Freie Universität Berlin and Konstanz Universität
Since November 2020, Jules Ahlin has been pursuing a PhD on the impact of institutional legacies on democratization processes in Africa. Jules holds a Master’s degree in Mathematics from the University of Cape Coast in Ghana and another Master’s degree in Applied Statistics from the Institute for Empirical Research in Political Economy (IERPE) in Benin. He also works as a data manager for the project “Do Legislatures Enhance Democracy in Africa (DLEDA)”, which aims to investigate how parliaments in seven sub-Saharan African countries are fulfilling their roles.
Jules’ research interests lie in the field of democracy and parliamentary studies in sub-Saharan Africa, with a particular focus on Togo. As part of his doctoral research and the LISSA project, he is working on the development of a database on parliamentary research in Africa.
Research project
What Drives Contestation Among Ruling Party Mps in Authoritarian Regimes? Analysis of Uganda‘S Parliament
Recent research often characterizes legislatures in authoritarian regimes as primarily ceremonial, functioning as rubber stamps for incumbents, tools for cooptation, or arenas for information gathering and rent sharing. This study, however, demonstrates that authoritarian legislatures can also serve as critical spaces for political contestation, particularly in policymaking. By analyzing over 90000 parliamentary speeches from Uganda’s 10th Parliament (2016–2021), this study reveals significant intra-party contestation among ruling party MPs, especially between those with ministerial positions and those without. These debates are most pronounced on issues like International Affairs, Energy and Natural Resources, and Government Operations. In contrast, politically sensitive topics such as power distribution and internal parliamentary matters exhibit less contestation. These findings challenge simplistic views of authoritarian legislatures and provide new insights into the complexities of policymaking in authoritarian regimes.
Keywords Uganda, hybrid regimes, legislative studies, parliamentary debate
