The State, Competing Ethnic Nationalisms and Democratisation in Ethiopia

Abstract

Following the change of regime in 1991, Ethiopia has been undergoing a major politi cal metamorphosis, the key elements of which are political pluralism and a decentrali sation of power based on ethnic-linguistic criterion. As such, the twin objective of the Ethiopian transition is to effect a dual transition, i.e. a transition from an ethnic dominated empire state ofunequals to an ethnically egalitarian nation-state of equals and from authoritarian rule to democracy'. The central problem in Ethiopias democratisation is the contradictory policy of the TPLF/EPRDF regime, which has been democratisation on paper and authoritarian ism in practice. Motivated by the propensity to dominate and the imperatives of rec reating the Ethiopian state and society according to its own image, the ruling party has been advocating the policy of political pluralism, a liberal national constitution, decentralisation of the state structure to promote self-rule, etc., while in theory con centrating power in the hands of the ruling party. To this end, a strategy of creating the PDOs as instruments of central control has been followed, which have obstructed the various democratisation initiatives. As argued in this paper, the exclusive elec tions held in June 1992 and 1994, May 1995 and 2000, were all aimed at the insti tutionalisation of a de facto one-party state and have contributed little, if any, to the democratisation of the Ethiopian state and society. This paper further argues that despite some measures related to political liberalisa tion, ending of a command economy, etc., the Ethiopian state has generally remained authoritarian and repressive, and in the same way the 'nation-building' project of the imperial regime for much of the 20th century and the 'garrison socialism' of the military regime in 1970s and 1980s failed to produce the desired result, the present attempt to democratise the Ethiopian State and society appears to be foundering, as a result of the continued adherence of the TPLF leadership to what they call 'revolution ary democracy', which is essentially based on Mao's dictum: 'power comes from the barrel of the gun' and the principles of democratic centralism, both of which seem to have a debilitating effect on the democratisation enterprise.