Influence Of Political Parties On The Formulation Of Hydrocarbon Policy In The Parliament Of Uganda

Abstract

The formulation of Uganda’s hydrocarbon policy guiding the exploration, development and production programmes of the oil and gas sector culminated, in the first instance, into the enactment of the 1985 Petroleum (Exploration and Production) Act. This was later repealed and replaced with Petroleum (Exploration, Development and Production) Act of 2013 and the Petroleum (Refining, Conversion, Transmission and Midstream Storage) Act of 2013. The formulation of these policies occurred during the intermittent multiparty party dispensations that the country has experienced since its independence in 1962. Parliamentary political parties have consequently been at the center of policy formulation for the oil and gas sector. Notwithstanding this, there is scanty literature on the intraparty dynamics that influence public policy formulation specifically for the hydrocarbon sector. Available literature, however, dwells on the politics underpinning public policy implementation that has dominated the discourse on the trajectory of democractic practice in Uganda. Furthermore, parliamentary political parties have not leveraged enough the internal party dynamics that are crucial in facilitating their influence on the policy formulation process. In particular, the roles of party ideology, caucusing and representation have scarcely been appreciated as significant attributes of parliamentary political party operations in the process of policy formulation. The purpose of this study was primarily to assess the influence of parliamentray political parties on the formulation of hydrocarbon policy in Uganda. Its specifc objectives entailed the examination of the influence of political party ideologies on the formulation of Uganda’s hydrocarbon policy, assess the influence of political party caucuses on the formulation of hydrocarbon policy and establish the influence of political party representation on the formulation of the hydrocarbon policy in Uganda. The study was informed by the systems theory in understanding the input-output process and the political party theory in understanding political parties as coalitions of policy demanders that share group policy priorities. The study adopted a qualitative research design. The target population was 382 from which a sample size of 195 was selected. First, the research findings revealed that political party ideologies have less significance in the hydrocarbon policy formulation process in Uganda. Instead all parties tend to coalesce towards advancing and protecting national and local community interests. These finding contradicts conventional literature on the role of political ideology as a reference for policy formulation especially in developed economies. Secondly, apart from the ruling party, political party caucuses are seldom utilised to galvanise intraparty consensus for policy formulation in the oil and gas sector. Lastly, political party representation, though fundamental in policy formulation, suffers from parliamentary inadequacies that affect quality representation in parliament. It is, therefore, concluded that, political parties are significant influencers of public policy formulation contrary to conventional arguments that they do not have a role to play in public policy making in authoritarian regimes. This study recommends the institutionalization of parliamentary political parties to enhance their legislative rolein formulating public policies not just for the oil and gas sector, but also other policies in Uganda.