State of the Nation: Why Does Ethiopia Need to Preserve the Parliamentary Model of Government in its Aspiration to Be a Democracy?

Abstract

Abstract This paper critically analyses the case for the parliamentary model of government combined with proportional electoral design. Using Ethiopia’s practice of parliamentary model of government, and its diverse social structures, as a case study, the paper examines the viability of parliamentary model of government for transition to democratic polity. The paper relies on the theory of consociational democracy that focuses on the role of social and political elites, their deliberations and cooperation, as the fundamental instrument to stable democratic polity. Methodologically, the paper employed interpretive and qualitative meta-analysis of relevant laws and the literature. As such, this article focuses on the link between the model of government and transition to a democratic polity in a multi-cultural and multi-ethnic society, more precisely, the risk that the presidential model dents transition to democracy in a multicultural and multi-ethnic society. I argue, therefore, in a social fabric where ethnic and cultural diversity is the basic defining tenet of the social order, parliamentary model of government combined with proportional electoral design offers better flexibility in the process of transition to consolidated democratic polity.