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May 19, 2022 · Abstract. When federalism was introduced in Ethiopia in the early 1990s, it did not receive a warm reception. Although the militarily victorious, ethnic-based liberation movements presented federalism as the only viable path to democratization and stability, many others saw it as a ploy to disintegrate the country.
Although ethnic-federalism alone may not exacerbate ethnic conflicts, ethnic-federalism entwined with the existence of ethnic-based political parties and the rapid proliferation of narrow...
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Jan 12, 2022 · While solving old problems of ethnic inequality and injustice, ethnic federalism has created new problems of ethnic tensions and conflict across Ethiopia. The article aims at investigating how and why ethnic federalism ended up being a source of ethnic conflicts in Ethiopia and suggests the way out.
- Abstract
- 2. Ethiopian Federalism as a Centralized Federation
- 3. Ethiopian Federalism as a Confederation
- Dr. Solomon Nigussie — Discussant
- Dr. Mulugeta Mengist
- Dr. Yonatan Fessha
- Dr. Adem Kassie Abebe
Ethiopian federalism has been considered ethnic federalism both in domestic scholarly and policy discussions, as well as internationally in comparative federalism studies. I argue that Ethiopian federalism is so much more than “ethnic federalism” and even more than federalism itself. Ethiopian federalism has four faces, which are unitary, federal, ...
This federation of convenience may give the impression and façade that Ethiopia has been transformed from “a prison house of nationalities” into “a freedom house of nationalities”—that ethnic groups now have the autonomy and freedom to decide on their own affairs in the territories they inhabit, i.e., practice self-rule, and participate in the gove...
If Ethiopian federalism is a federation of convenience from the viewpoint of the ethnic groups and a centralized one from that of the regional states, it is a confederation from the perspective of the citizens. This is because the Ethiopian Constitution generated two imagined political communities as sites of citizenship. The first includes the Nat...
Thank you Berihun for your clear presentation and succinct framing of the most important issues. By agreeing with you on most points, I will focus on the most important issues which I think should be discussed. One issue is, there are people who argue that the Ethiopian federation guarantees the rights of cultural and religious groups and that th...
On your idea of having a serious federation more than having a federation of convenience you raise the issue of self-determination. I do not have a problem with self-determination in general. But the right to secession renders the whole federation a federation of convenience. I would like to raise the practical problems which arise from having a se...
In your paper you attributed the centralization of power to the design of the Constitution. I am not sure the centralization comes from the constitutional design. If you look at the division of power in the Constitution, it gives explicit power to the federal government and gives residual power to the states. This is an indication that the federati...
What are the parameters by which one can say a federation is centralized or not?
Weaknesses of Ethnic Federalism in Ethiopia. Ethnic federalism has been exploited to plant division among ethnic groups so as to institutionalize and facilitate rule by the TPLF and other politically affiliated groups, representing a small proportion of the population.
Ethiopian ethnic federal system is significant in that it provides for secession of any ethnic unit. The secession clause is one of the most controversial issues in public discourse in Ethiopia and its diaspora communities today. 3 Opponents of ethnic federalism fear that it invites ethnic conflict and risks state
At the other end of the spectrum, scholars contend that multicultural federalism has the opposite effect: federalism has increased and intensified ethnic conflicts in several countries. Why is this so? The fluid nature of ethnic identity is incompatible with institutional fixedness.
