The Culture of Power in Contemporary Ethiopian Political Life PDF Download

Author: Sarah Vaughan
Publisher:
ISBN: 9789158686113
Category : Ethiopia
Languages : en
Pages : 177

View

Book Description

Author: Yohannes Gedamu
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1000411931
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 236

View

Book Description
This book investigates the role of ethnic federalism in Ethiopian politics, reflecting on a long history of division amongst the country’s political elites. The book argues that these patterns have enabled the resilience and survival of authoritarianism in the country, and have led to the failure of democratization. Ethnic conflict in Ethiopia stretches back to the country’s imperial history. Competing nationalisms begin to emerge towards the end of the imperial era, but were formalized by the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) from the 1990s onwards. Under the EPRDF, ethnicity and language classifications formed the main organizing principles for political parties and organizations, and the country’s new federal arrangement was also designed along ethnic fault lines. This book argues that this ethnic federal arrangement, and the continuation of an elite political culture are major factors in explaining the continuation of authoritarianism in Ethiopia. Focusing largely on the last 27 years under the EPRDF and on the political changes of the last few years, but also stretching back to historical narratives of ethnic grievances and division, this book is an important guide to the ethnic politics of Ethiopia and will be of interest to researchers of African politics, authoritarianism and ethnic conflict.

Author: Tom Lavers
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0192699067
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 337

View

Book Description
This is an open access title available under the terms of a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 International licence. It is free to read on the Oxford Academic platform and offered as a free PDF download from OUP and selected open access locations. After more than a decade of construction, Ethiopia is filling the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), a controversial dam with the potential to transform the hydrology and politics of the Nile Basin. The GERD is the culmination of a dam building boom carried out over three decades and a key pillar of the Ethiopian Peoples' Revolutionary Democratic Front's (EPRDF) efforts to bring about an Ethiopian 'Renaissance'. Dams, Power, and the Politics of Ethiopia's Renaissance provides a detailed examination of the domestic and international political dynamics that shaped Ethiopia's dam building, drawing on extensive primary research including more than a hundred interviews with politicians, technocrats, consultants, and donors. The authors reflect on the implications of Ethiopia's dam building for broader debates about the role of the state in late development, the dynamics of twenty-first century dam building, and the political economy of renewable energy transitions. A central argument of the book is that Ethiopia's dam building is symbolic of the successes and failures of the EPRDF's 'developmental state'. On the one hand, this dams' boom enhanced electricity generation capacity, while constituting a key element of the state infrastructure investment that turned Ethiopia into one of the world's fastest growing economies. In contrast, a politically driven decision-making process undermined electricity planning, contributed to an unsustainable debt burden, and, ultimately, failed to provide reliable electricity access to key users. Following the EPRDF's collapse, the subsequent Prosperity Party government has taken steps away from the state-led development model of its predecessor, while labouring towards the final completion of the GERD. Oxford Studies in African Politics and International Relations is a series for scholars and students working on African politics and International Relations and related disciplines. Volumes concentrate on contemporary developments in African political science, political economy, and International Relations, such as electoral politics, democratization, decentralization, gender and political representation, the political impact of natural resources, the dynamics and consequences of conflict, comparative political thought, and the nature of the continent's engagement with the East and West. Comparative and mixed methods work is particularly encouraged. Case studies are welcomed but should demonstrate the broader theoretical and empirical implications of the study and its wider relevance to contemporary debates. The focus of the series is on sub-Saharan Africa, although proposals that explain how the region engages with North Africa and other parts of the world are of interest. Series Editors: Nic Cheeseman (University of Birmingham), Peace Medie (University of Bristol), and Ricardo Soares de Oliveira (University of Oxford)

Author: Lovise Aalen
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004209379
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 230

View

Book Description
Most governments in Africa, seeing the political mobilisation of ethnicity as a threat, have rejected the use of ethnic differences as an explicit basis for political representation. The one prominent exception is Ethiopia, which since 1991 has imposed a system of ethnic-based federalism that offers each ethnic group the right of ‘self-determination’. This book provides a detailed empirical study of this system at work in the complex multiethnic environment of southern Ethiopia. It finds that ethnic self-rule, in combination with the power politics of an authoritarian regime, has produced both intended and unintended outcomes. While arguably easing large-scale ethnic conflicts, it has led to ‘ethnicisation’ of local socioeconomic disputes and to sharper inter-ethnic and intra-ethnic divides, often to the disadvantage of historically marginalised groups.

Author: Gérard Prunier
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 1849042616
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 548

View

Book Description
"Seeks to dispel the myths and clichés surrounding contemporary perceptions of Ethiopia by providing a rare overview of the country's recent history, politics and culture. Explores the unique features of this often misrepresented country as it strives to make itself heard in the modern world"-- Publisher description.

Author: Eva Poluha
Publisher: Nordic Africa Institute
ISBN: 9789171065353
Category : Family & Relationships
Languages : en
Pages : 228

View

Book Description
"In this gracefully written book Dr. Eva Poluha wrestles with important issues of Ethiopian political culture and cultural continuity and transmission in general. Drawing upon her years of experience in the country, as well as the data from this school ethnography, she has produced a stimulating and thought-provoking work for those interested in problems of cross-cultural education as well as in Ethiopia." -- Herbert S. Lewis, Professor Emeritus, Department of Anthropology, University of Wisconsin-Madison Children play a vital role as a source of information on politics but have been neglected as political actors in research contexts. In this study, children are used as a window to an Ethiopian society where hierarchical relations persist, despite the numerous political and administrative transformations of the past century. With data gathered through participant observation the book examines how young, Addis Abeba school children learn to adapt to and reproduce relations of superordinaton or subordination based on gender, age, strength and social position. The children's experiences are viewed in the historical context of state-citizen relations where hierarchy and obsession with control have been and continue to be dominant. The discussion focuses on the power of continuity in the reproduction of cultural patterns and political behaviour, and on how change towards more egalitarian relations could come about.

Author: Jon Abbink
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1134916116
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 269

View

Book Description
This book takes stock of political reform in Ethiopia and the transformation of Ethiopian society since the adoption of multi-party politics and ethnic federalism in 1991. Decentralization, attempted democratization via ethno-national representation, and partial economic liberalization have reconfigured Ethiopian society and state in the past two decades. Yet, as the contributors to this volume demonstrate, ‘democracy’ in Ethiopia has not changed the authority structures and the culture of centralist decision-making of the past. The political system is tightly engineered and controlled from top to bottom by the ruling Ethiopian Peoples’ Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF). Navigating between its 1991 announcements to democratise the country and its aversion to power-sharing, the EPRDF has established a de facto one-party state that enjoys considerable international support. This ruling party has embarked upon a technocratic ‘developmental state’ trajectory ostensibly aimed at ‘depoliticizing’ national policy and delegitimizing alternative courses. The contributors analyze the dynamics of authoritarian state-building, political ethnicity, electoral politics and state-society relations that have marked the Ethiopian polity since the downfall of the socialist Derg regime. Chapters on ethnic federalism, 'revolutionary democracy', opposition parties, the press, the judiciary, state-religion, and state-foreign donor relations provide the most comprehensive and thought-provoking review of contemporary Ethiopian national politics to date. This book is based on a special issue of the Journal of Eastern African Studies.

Author: Kjetil Tronvoll
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004218432
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 314

View

Book Description
Drawing on nine case studies, this book offers a comparative ethnography of the contested powers that shape democratization in Ethiopia. Focusing on the competitive 2005 elections, the authors analyze how customary leaders, political parties and state officials confronted each other during election time.

Author: Raymond A. Smith
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN:
Category : Health & Fitness
Languages : en
Pages : 900

View

Book Description
An international team of specialists in politics, policy, and activism provide an indispensable guide to the persistent challenges and emerging issues posed by the global HIV/AIDS epidemic, now in its fourth decade. The HIV/AIDS epidemic is at a critical turning point. Compelling new findings herald the potential to eventually grind the epidemic to a halt through a combination of expanded treatment coverage and new biomedical approaches to prevention. At the same time, the severe global economic downturns have negatively affected wealthy donor nations that have provided the funds and technical support for programs in the developing world. It is against this backdrop that this landmark three-volume set was developed. It provides a broad overview of the critical political issues surrounding HIV/AIDS, inspects key areas of policy and policymaking, and spotlights the most important forms of activism and community mobilization. The volumes reflect an eclectic and wide-ranging set of issues written by an international team comprising dozens of authors from nations including the United States, the United Kingdom, Ghana, South Africa, Brazil, Cambodia, Norway, and Qatar. The international contributors represent a variety of disciplines and bring with them a range of styles and methodological approaches appropriate to their specific topics and disciplines. An important addition to academic and public libraries, this expansive work will benefit students and other readers interested in politics, policymaking, public health, activism, and community mobilization, both in the United States and globally.

Author: E. Cooper
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 1137350830
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 160

View

Book Description
This collection explores the productive potential of uncertainty for people living in Africa as well as for scholars of Africa. Eight ethnographic case studies from across the continent examine how uncertainty is used to negotiate insecurity, create and conduct relationships, and act as a source for imagining the future.