Abstract
AbstractThe 1995 Ethiopian Constitution envisions a multinational state with the right to self‐determination, including secession, given to the nations, nationalities, and peoples of the country. This remarkable document is a product of a unique combination of Ethiopia's history, Marxist‐Leninist debates of the 1974 revolution, and political circumstances of the time the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) took power in 1991. The subsequent 20 years witnessed a concerted attempt to implement measures for federal decentralization alongside continued political centralization in the ruling party, with several intended and unintended consequences. Since 2016, a combination of the manipulation of constitutional provisions for personal and factional advantage, and polarized perspectives over the identity and future of the country, have unveiled a chapter of political crisis. The 1995 Constitution is hardly a cause of this crisis, yet the fate of the Constitution has become central to the dynamics of the crisis.
Highlights
National identity questions have been at the center of Ethiopian politics since the formation of the modern state during the reign of Emperor Menelik II (1889‐1913)
With the political dominance of the Ethiopian Peoples' Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) in 1991, the Ethiopian state was fundamentally restructured with the introduction of the right of nations and nationalities for self-determination including and up to secession as stipulated in the 1995 Constitution of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia
The design of the 1995 Federal Constitution of Ethiopia was intended to facilitate the building of a common economic and political community based on the free will of the nations, nationalities, and peoples of Ethiopia
Summary
National identity questions have been at the center of Ethiopian politics since the formation of the modern state during the reign of Emperor Menelik II (1889‐1913). Thereafter, self-determination stayed at the center of Ethiopian politics and became one of the main organizing slogans for resistance against the atrocities of the military regime (Vaughan, 2003). With the political dominance of the Ethiopian Peoples' Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) in 1991, the Ethiopian state was fundamentally restructured with the introduction of the right of nations and nationalities for self-determination including and up to secession as stipulated in the 1995 Constitution of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia. Ethiopia was transformed, achieving both unprecedented economic development and constructing an innovative model of a multinational state that respects the rights of cultural identities. Following the large-scale protests of 2016‐2017 and subsequent political developments, the Constitution is brought into the center of political discourse in Ethiopia
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