Local security and the (un)making of public authority in Gulu, Northern Uganda
通过乌干达北部古卢地区三个地方安全举措的案例，研究公共权威如何通过声称和否认权威的动态过程建立权力，以及国家如何通过公私边界的不确定划分维持权力，导致公民无法形成对公共权威的预期或替代，解释国家问责缺失。
This article explores the way in which the concept of ‘public’ is continually and unpredictably constituted, redefined, and unmade in Gulu District, northern Uganda. It uses case studies of three local security initiatives and their conflicts with state agents to examine how public authorities establish power through a dynamic process of both claiming and denying authority, thereby divesting themselves of responsibility to intervene. It also shows that the state maintains its power over other claimants to public authority such as the local security initiatives by unpredictably shifting the boundary between public and private, and enforcing these seemingly arbitrary definitions with a very real threat of violent force. Together, these two phenomena prevent civilians from developing expectations of public authorities or creating alternative public authorities, which helps to explain the lack of state accountability to citizens in northern Uganda.