The Emergence of Democratic Developmental States in Africa: The Ethiopian Experience

Abstract

The positive development outcomes of the Post 1945 external assistance for war-torn Europe through Marshal Plan caught the attentions of third world countries and academics to repeat the lesson in Africa and elsewhere. However, except Asian Tiger countries(South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore) and Japan, whose state intervention is critical, no African state has achieved sustainable economic growth and industrialization. However, some researchers argue that despite such poor economic performances of African states, South Africa and Botswana were successful in bringing sustainable economic growth and development. Consequently, they claimed that only these states that fulfill most of the requirements of democratic developmental state characteristics in Africa. However, the writer argues that Ethiopia is the only democratic developmental state in Africa that by and large satisfy the prerequisites for democratic developmental state; i.e.; land ownership system, corruption incidence, income equality, extreme poverty reduction and most importantly the presence of development-oriented leadership and the adoption of long term development plan. To prove my assumptions, a document analysis is used as the main tool of investigation of the problem and analysis.