Developmental State Model within the Ethiopian Federation: Impacts on Multilevel Development Governance
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Date
2021-11
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Addis Ababa Unversity
Abstract
Ethiopia’s experiment with the Developmental State Model within a context of a federal system
has been the subject of debate among scholars and policymakers. This study examines whether
and how the Developmental State Model has impacted the multilevel development governance
system within the Ethiopian federation. It specifically aims to examine how the Developmental
State Model has affected the democratic and federal aspects of development governance as
provided under the 1995 Federal Constitution. Within this umbrella question, the study seeks to
answer the following specific questions: (1) Are the Developmental State Model and a federal
political system conceptually incompatible? (2) What are the major issues of (in)compatibility and
questions between the Developmental State Model vis-à-vis Ethiopia’s federal system? (3) What
are the manifestations of, if any, authoritarianism under the Ethiopian Developmental State Model
and the implications thereof on a democratic multilevel development governance system within
the Ethiopian federation? (4) How have the federal government’s development policies under the
Ethiopian Developmental State Model impacted the vertical division of power between tiers of
government, as outlined under the 1995 Constitution? The study employed a qualitative research
methodology, where large scale commercial farming, industrial parks, and rural-urban integrated
master plan were purposively selected as cases for the study representing the three core sectoral
policy areas of the Ethiopian developmental state (i.e. agriculture, industry, and urban
development). Likewise, participants were selected purposively and data were gathered using in depth interviews and focus group discussions with key informants, and review of pertinent
documents, including policies, plans, constitutions, proclamations, regulations, party documents.
both at federal and regional state levels. The findings of the study is that although the
Developmental State Model tends to favor centralized state structure and authoritarian
governance system, these nevertheless are not the inherent features of the model, and the model in
and of itself is not necessarily incompatible with a federal political system, as the experiences of
countries like India and South Africa, which managed to build a democratic developmental state
under a decentralized state structure, clearly demonstrate. However, regarding Ethiopia’s
experience, the study shows that the fact that the country’s federal system is organized along ethnic
lines along the prominence of hegemonic party politics practiced by the EPRDF poses a serious
compatibility dilemma for harmonious co-existence of the Developmental State Model with the
federal system in Ethiopia. Under the Ethiopian Developmental State Model, the EPRDF-led
government sought to entrench developmentalism as a hegemonic ideology that governs the
country’s political economy by introducing a variety of measures and legislations (press and
media, electoral, civil society, and anti-terrorism laws). These measures have significantly
contributed to a shrinking of the democratic space and political pluralism in the country by
undermining a decentralized and democratic development governance, as reflected in the top down, exclusionary and coercive development policies witnessed, for example, in the case of the