A Millennium Democratic Goal for Ethiopia: Some Conceptual Issues

Abstract

This paper proposes an Ethiopian Democratic Millennium Goal that articulates development, and social justice. It examines how the conceptual stretching of democracy, nation, and civil society has created epistemic obstacles that prevent Ethiopian political thinking from pursuing such a goal. It proposes an approach toward a Millennium Democratic Goal based on an interpretation of democracy as a form of society, of development as freedom, and of freedoms as capabilities. It brings out the role of political society as the midwife of a democracy that Ethiopians can recognize as their solution to the political and economic riddles of their history.