Living in a Material World: Political Funding in Electoral Authoritarian Regimes in Sub-Saharan Africa

Living in a material world: Political funding in electoral authoritarian regimes in Sub-Saharan Africa Svein-Erik Helle Master thesis Department of Comparative Politics University of Bergen i Abstract This thesis investigates the role of political funding in two electoral authoritarian regimes in Sub-Saharan Africa. The issue of political funding has been investigated thoroughly in developed democracies in the West, but only relatively recently have scholars tried to investigate the importance of political funding in Sub-Saharan Africa and in non-democratic regimes who still hold elections. The aim of this thesis is thus to investigate what types of political funding exists in electoral authoritarian regimes in Sub-Saharan Africa, and what contextual factors that affects the availability of funding for different actors. An additional goal is to highlights some of the implications of political funding for the political regime. The thesis uses three steps to approach this research question. First, it compares and contrasts existing theory on political funding with previous work on issues related to political funding, and builds a theoretical framework based on this. It then turns to case studies of Uganda and Angola using process tracing to conduct a thorough within-case analysis to map out both which funding types exist and the mechanisms and processes surrounding these funding types. Finally, the thesis compares the results of the two case studies in a cross-case comparison and draws tentative conclusions about funding in electoral authoritarian regimes in Sub-Saharan Africa based on this. The main finding of this thesis is that political funding is an important tool in the authoritarian “toolbox” in electoral authoritarian regimes in Sub-Saharan Africa. The ruling parties in both Uganda and Angola have access to a lot more sources of funding than the opposition parties. Most of the sources that are available to the ruling party and not the opposition parties are linked to their continued electoral dominance and control over state institutions. In general, the findings of this thesis indicates that plutocratic funding and income from graft are the two categories of funding that are most important in the Sub- Saharan African context, and that, on average, the ruling party is able to attract more funding from these funding sources than the opposition. In addition, the thesis highlights that the ruling party in both Uganda and Angola uses its control over the state to deny the opposition possible fundraising sources that they cannot control, but that the approach to this varies between the two regimes. This implies that to fully understand the role of political funding in electoral authoritarian regimes in Sub-Saharan Africa, we need to focus more on the whole funding situation, and not just the way which the ruling parties enrich themselves. ii Acknowledgements Writing this thesis has been a very challenging and interesting journey, and I would like to thank some of the people who have helped me start the journey, accompanied me on the way, inspired me to go further, and helped me finish the journey on time. I would first like to thank some of the inspiring people at the Institute of Comparative Politics. Michael Alvarez, my supervisor: thank you for good advice and insightful comments along the way. Thank you Lars Svåsand and Lise Rakner, for starting my journey by introducing me to issues related to African politics through SAMPOL315. I was lucky enough to be accepted as an associated master student at CMI, and I would like to thank some of the wonderful people there. I first have to thank Lise again for introducing me to both CMI and Uganda, and for providing me with invaluable help in planning and conducting my fieldwork. Aslak Orre, thank you for always being positive and for introducing me to the puzzle that Angola is. To everyone else: thank you for entertaining conversations during the lunch: they probably made my day! Thank you to everyone who assisted me during my fieldwork, both in Norway, Uganda and Angola. I have to thank the Angola-program and the “Elections and Democracy in Africa”- project especially for funding my “journey”: without this support this thesis would not have been a reality. Thank you to all my informants in Uganda and Angola: it was an honor talking to you. A special thanks goes to everyone at CEIC-UCAN in Luanda, and especially Dr. Alves da Rocha, Margarida and Claudio. To all the wonderful “co-masters” of the 2011-class: Its been great fun and really inspiring to meet each and every one of you. And I mean that. An extra shout for Aslaug who put up with my “African time” in Luanda. And to all the rest of you guys and girls at CMI: thanks for all the laughs. To Lucia: thank you for waking me every morning and making sure I get up. Finally, there will always be that invaluable companion that I simply cannot live without. Thank you, Stinemor, for being my love, my idol and my inspiration. Svein-Erik Helle, Bergen, 27th of May 2011 iii Table of contents Chapter 1 – Political funding as an issue in Sub-Saharan Africa: An introduction ........................................1 The methodological approach and findings of the thesis ............................................................................... 1 The cases; the phenomenon; the setting ........................................................................................................ 2 1.1 The cases: Uganda and Angola .................................................................................................................... 3 1.2 The phenomenon: Political funding ............................................................................................................. 4 1.3 The setting: pragmatically oriented parties in electoral authoritarian regimes .......................................... 7 1.4 Structure of thesis ....................................................................................................................................... 10 Chapter 2 – Creating a foundation: Theory on political funding .................................................................... 12 2.1 Fundraising strategies ................................................................................................................................ 13 2.2 Empirical lessons – an evaluation of possible funding sources in Sub-Saharan Africa ............................. 17 Grassroot funding ........................................................................................................................................ 18 Plutocratic funding ...................................................................................................................................... 20 State subsidies ............................................................................................................................................. 21 Income from Graft ....................................................................................................................................... 24 Foreign funding ........................................................................................................................................... 26 2.3 The setting: How strategic behaviour and contextual factors affect political funding ............................... 28 Electoral authoritarianism and strategies of manipulation ........................................................................... 28 Other contextual factors ............................................................................................................................... 30 Chapter 3 – Processes, mechanisms and more: Choosing the methodological tools ...................................... 32 Point of departure: methodological implications of the research question .................................................. 32 3.1 Choosing a method: case studies, empirical validity and causal mechanisms ........................................... 33 Causal mechanisms and the process surrounding them ............................................................................... 34 How to achieve precise description of causal mechanisms ......................................................................... 35 Comparing across contexts .......................................................................................................................... 36 3.2 Case choice: External validity, spatial scope conditions and other considerations ................................... 38 3.3 Data: Challenges related to triangulation and fieldwork .......................................................................... 42 Two methodological concerns about data: measurement validity and reliability ........................................ 42 Finding and triangulating data on political funding in Uganda and Angola ................................................ 43 Collecting data through expert interviews ................................................................................................... 46 Chapter 4 – Political funding in Uganda ............................................................................................................ 50 4.1 The current funding situation for the four largest political parties in Uganda .......................................... 51 The NRM-party ........................................................................................................................................... 51 Forum for Democratic

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