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International
Journal of Political Science and Development |
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International Journal of Political Science and Development Vol. 3(7), pp. 291–300, July, 2015. DOI: 10.14662/IJPSD2015.038 ISSN: 2360-784X
Research Paper
Ethnic Federalism and Democratic Developmental State in Ethiopia: Some Points of Contradiction
Beresa Abera Jebena
Pan African University, Institute of Governance, Humanities and Social Sciences, Department of Governance and Regional Integration
Accepted 22 July 2015
The present
Ethiopia was made based on ethnic based federal state structure since
1991. Recently, the Ethiopian government has explicitly declared itself
as Democratic Developmental State (DDS). This study presents the
assessment of building DDS with in ethnic federalism doctrine of
Ethiopia by focusing on the potential contradictions between the two.
The finding in this study reveals that as a result of ethnic based
federalism of Ethiopia, the politics of self-determination drastically
hindered elite commitment, and ethnically affiliated bureaucracy has
been cultivated instead of meritocracy, all of which affect DDS. In
addition, ethnic federalism has also been exacerbated ethnic conflict
with the creation of new minorities at regional level which erodes
national consensus, the core element for the success of democratic
developmental state. Furthermore, despite the federal and decentralized
structure of the Ethiopian state, development policies, targets and
programmes are designed at the centre, authorizing regional and local
authorities little for manoeuvre in a centralized and top-down logic.
Accordingly, the ethnic based federalism of Ethiopian state seems to
stand in sharp contradiction with the centralistic and top-down logics
that inspired the DDS model and practices. As such, Ethiopia needs to
set strong institution embedded with merit based bureaucracy. National
unity and national consensus needs to precede the imposition of
democratic developmental state. These help to integrate genuine
Democratic Developmental State with ethnic federalism. Hence, the
relevance of this study lies in making a contribution to the
understanding of the challenges of building Democratic Developmental
State in multi-ethnic state taking Ethiopian experience. Cite This Article As: Jebena BA (2015). Ethnic Federalism and Democratic Developmental State in Ethiopia: Some Points of Contradiction. Inter. J. Polit. Sci. Develop. 3(7): 291-300
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