APCG Online Colloquium:Joan Ricart-Huguet (May 13 12:00 EST)

Please fill out your information below if you would like to receive instructions for participating in the APCG Online Colloquium featuring Joan Ricart-Huguet Assistant Professor at Loyola University Maryland.

Participants are expected to read the paper in advance. The paper will be emailed to you along with the Zoom session information.

Paper Title: Competence Amidst Instability: Cabinet Formation in Uganda Since Independence

Abstract

Uganda is considered an example of a country where instability and ethnic cleavages dominate politics. My interviews with former ministers and prime ministers, academics, and journalists reveal that human capital and competence, largely overlooked, are necessary to understand the composition of most Ugandan cabinets since independence. This is a chapter of my book project, which counters the standard view that African presidents are uniquely cynical and focused solely on (short-term) political stability, such as preventing coups. African presidents demand loyalty from their ministers, as is true elsewhere, but I argue that they look for competent ministers for rational reasons: it signals a quality government, thus increasing legitimacy, and may increase government performance. The book also presents evidence, for the case of Uganda and for East and West African countries more generally, that cabinet ministers have disproportionately and systematically hailed from more educated districts since independence. Colonial-era education was very scarce and highly unequal, so the most prepared individuals were concentrated in a few districts in each country, leading to their over-representation in government, especially until 1990. Democratization and the expansion of education attenuate–but do not eliminate–the political legacy of unequal colonial education.

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