Controlling Consent is a multi and cross-disciplinary anthology on Uganda’s 2016 elections.  The book brought together a group of Ugandan researchers to provide a grounded analysis of the various dimensions of the elections and to reflect on the future governance and development implications of the franchise.  Such an examination is especially important given that 2016 marked only the 3rd election under a multi-party system of government since the National Resistance Movement (NRM) under President Yoweri Museveni assumed power in 1986.  Thus, Controlling Consent makes a critical contribution to the knowledge and understanding of Uganda’s governance and electoral processes and provides a meaningful and extensive engagement with the country’s evolving framework of electoral democracy, both as test of and reflector upon the wider process of political development in the country.

"Controlling Consent does far more than encapsulate the 2016 Ugandan elections.  It demonstrates how electoral strategies are used to serve authoritarian purposes.  While it properly attacks the unseemly pursuit of power by the President and his party, it shows how the resulting cultural and social consequences of manipulating elections erode opposition candidates and parties, distort state institutions, exclude women and minorities and eviscerate civil and political rights.  It should be required reading for scholars and students interested in democratization gone wrong."

--Nelson Kasfir, Professor of Government Emeritus, Dartmouth College (USA)

"A compelling analysis of the multiparty electoral masquerades that pass for democracy.  Drawing upon feminist theorizations of violence to redefine  the meaning of “consent,” a multi-disciplinary team of Uganda’s most incisive academics present a sophisticated case study of the manner in which a politics of fear sustains neoliberal patriarchal regimes to thwart the will of the people.  The contributors detail how both the use and pervasive threats of violence under-gird “free and fair” rhetoric to  legitimize politically bankrupt regimes in the service of external corporate interests.  Controlling Consent is a must-read collection that takes political theory to a new level with implications for an entire generation."

--Amina Mama, Professor in Gender, Sexuality and Women’s Studies, University of California, Davis; Editor of Feminist Africa.

ABOUT THE EDITORS
J. OLOKA-ONYANGO is a Professor of Law, School of Law, Makerere University and a Senior Research Fellow, Centre for Basic Research, Kampala.

JOSEPHINE AHIKIRE is Associate Professor and Dean, School of Women and Gender Studies, Makerere University and Senior Research Fellow, Centre for Basic Research, Kampala.

CATEGORY
Politics, Current Affairs, Multidisciplinary Studies/AFRICA