Effects of political sophistication and political incivility during the 2021 General Elections in Uganda: a case study of youths at Youth Alive Uganda (YAU)

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of political sophistication on political incivility during the 2021 general elections in Uganda. The study adopted a quantitative study design which was correlation in nature with a population of 180 members of Youth Alive Uganda. Simple random sampling technique was used to draw a sample of 124 respondents from the population. Data was collected from respondents using self-administered standard questionnaire and entered in the computer for analysis through Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) software version 23. Descriptive statistics showed that (54.5 %) of the respondents were male and (45.5%) were female, majority of participants were between 23-27 years (35.0%). Results from percentages indicated there are high rates of political sophistication (78.2%), and low levels of political incivility as (92.7%) reported that they never threatened or physically harmed those they disagreed with during political discussions. Pearson product-moment correlation coefficient (r) further indicated that there was no relationship between political sophistication s and political incivility, (r=.222, p=.013). Therefore, the present study provides a basis and implications for further investigation on the rates of political sophistication, political incivility and relationship between political sophistication and political incivility among the members of Youth Alive Uganda in the fourth coming general elections. It was recommended that the local authorities in different parts of the country need to develop policies that can check on the rates of political sophistication in order to reduce on the rates of political incivility that may arise in future during the general elections in Uganda.