The Move towards Developmental State in FDRE: The Role of Intergovernmental Relation (IGR) for its Implementation Preserving the Autonomy of Regional States
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Date
2015-04
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
After a period of long debate and confrontation between the two giant economic paradigms,
[capitalism and socialism], to realize economic development on countries of the world, another
view of economic theory, developmental state ideology come to over flood the development
scholarship following the South East Asian countries developmental miracle, by implementing
the latter. Nowadays, many countries including Ethiopia are inclined towards the developmental
state paradigm by intending to grasp its developmental benefits reaped by the Asian Tigers.
Transplanting a developmental ideology with its best practice from countries that had a highly
centralized beaurocracy with a unitary form of state structure that help to easily frame a
homogenous developmental policy overall their country may seem vague for a country, Ethiopia,
having a constitutionally guaranteed federal form of state structure with significant autonomy of
regional states to design and implement their respective economic, social and developmental
policies and strategies.
This research reveals some of the difficulties to implement a developmental state economic
ideology in federal Ethiopia, on the one hand and how its unmanaged rush towards its
implementation affect the autonomy of regional states, on the other. In doing so weather, there
exist any possible means and institutional solution to resolve this contradiction is the central
question of the research. The research underscores that Intergovernmental Relations (IGR) with
its guideline and institutions could serve as a best solution and bridge between the contradictory
points of developmental state and federalism. Intensive and a duly managed use of IGRs between
the federal and regional states may help a federal country like Ethiopia to balance regional
states autonomy, to design and implement their developmental policies and strategies [prior
concern of the country’s federalism] with the demand of a developmental state ideology, for a
harmonized and parallel developmental policy all over the country. However, this research finds
that, little emphasis has given to the area of IGRs in Ethiopia that, it fails to play its great roll of
being a forum of policy harmonization between the federal and regional states of the country
than being a center to dictate the wish of the central government to regional states on national
developmental policy matters.
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Keywords
Development, Developmental State, Ethiopia, Federalism, Intergovernmental Relations