A people is a plurality of persons considered as a whole, as is the case with an ethnic group or nation, but that is distinct from a nation which is more abstract, and more overtly political. The politics of ethnic identity and conflicts under ethnic federal system in ethiopia 16 journal of international politics v1 i2 2019 the coverage of the points described, the paper is organized into the following sections and subsections. Ethnic federalism and selfdetermination for nationalities. Ethnic conflicts were the main forms of political instability in the multi ethnic societies during second half of twenty century and beginning of new century. Ethnic federal system and conflict in the post1995 ethiopia. Ethnicity, ethnic conflict, ethno history of ethiopia, ethnic politics. Pdf ethnic federalism and conflict in ethiopia researchgate. During the last half a century, ethiopia has witnessed three regimes that differed from each other in ideology, internal composition, ethnic and social policies as well as foreign policy. Ethiopia is a multinational country with about 85 ethnolinguistic groups and since the 1960s, it suffered from ethnoregional conflicts. Ethnic federalism also unleashed a struggle for supremacy among the big three. The flag with the star has been seen by ethiopian nationalists as oppressive and controversial because it was created by the eprdf ruling collation that was the main architect of ethnic federalism in ethiopia.
Ethnic federalism and its discontents crisis group. This book examines the impact of the federal restructuring of ethiopia on ethnic conflicts. The reality in ethiopia indicates that, federalism has become a means not only to manage ethnic conflicts, but also to strengthen the unity of nations, nationalities and peoples of ethiopia. Weaknesses of ethnic federalism in ethiopia ijhssi. Federal design, construction of ethnolinguistic identity, and group con. Article 39 of the constitution states that, every nation, nationality or people in ethiopia shall have the unrestricted right to self determination up. In 1991ethiopia established an ethnic federal system that gave full recognition to ethnic. Consequently, federalism in ethiopia experienced one of the conflicting area and interdisplaced populous state in the world. Theory versus practice in the implementation of ethiopia. Mitigating risks ahead of ethiopias pivotal elections. Adele jinadu, ethnic conflict and federalism in nigeria, in zef discussion papers on development policy center for development research, bonn, 2002. From this point of view it describes the main types of modern federal state. Paper federalism and conflicts in ethiopia horn affairs. The regime transformed the hitherto highly centralised state into a federal order and redefined citizenship, politics and identity on ethnic grounds.
Ethiopia adopted ethnic federalism and restructured the regions along ethnic lines as soon as the eprdf took political power by. A comparative study of the somali and benishangul gumuz regions, doctoral thesis, department of political science, leiden university. Still some others focus more on politicization of ethnicity and formalizing secession, concluding that the future of federalism in ethiopia is unclear alem, 2005. The goal of this study determinates social context of ethnic conflict in multi ethnic societies. During the haile selassie period, amhara elites perceived the various southern minority languages as hindrances to ethiopian national identity expansion. The factors that endanger the current system simultaneously suggest under what conditions the concept of ethnic federalism might succeed in the ethiopian context. The causes of ethnic conflict in multiethnic societies. Racism in ethiopia during and since the haile selassie epoch is typically described using the term ethnic discrimination. However, ethnic federalism in ethiopia has had different implications in relation to managing the multi ethnic conflicts in the country.
Ethnic federalism in ethiopia offered the prospect of a shift away from the high modernism of that states past projects to develop its people, apparently in favour of the collective perspectives of groups of its citizens. The presence of a diversified society is not a problem by nature, the only way tio peace or to conflict is the method to handle that diversity, the structure and implementation of the political system and the. Vaughan, ethnicity and power in ethiopia phd dissertation. Oct 23, 2020 ethnic mobilization comes from multiple groups, including ethiopians without an ethnic homeland, and those disenfranchised as minorities in the region of their residence, even if their ethnic group has a homeland in another state. According to this group, several inter and intra ethnic conflicts have of the federal structure. The book considers multiple governance and state factors that could explain the difficulties ethiopian federalism faces to realise its objectives. Pdf weaknesses of ethnic federalism in ethiopia haymi. Documents in collections federalism and ethnic conflict in ethiopia. A comparative study of the somali and benishangulgumuz regions. In fact, conflict is intensifying due to the ethnic heterogeneity of the regional states and the resourceboundary sharing between different groups. Under successful arrangements of federalism, a legal definition of people is not qualified by place of birth, ethnicity, or religion.
Apr 21, 2018 in his opinion, the problema of ethiopian federalism is that it puts more interest in ethnic identity than in shared identity. There are contested boundaries among the regional states and minorities within the. From the consequentialist view, ethnic federalism reinforces and deepens ethnic differences, dilutes a shared national identity or membership in a broader political community, and leads to separatism, which will eventually result in the dissolution of ethiopia. Conflict management in the ethiopian multinational federation. The eprdfs ethnic federalism has not dampened conflict, but rather increased competition among groups that vie over land and natural resources, as well as administrative boundaries and government budgets. In this study, i agued that with the politicisation of ethnicity in the countrys political scene. 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. However, even if these articles use the ethnicity factor in deconstructing the ethnic federalism s main characteristics, they lack in reporting empirical studies or specific case studies. Ethnic federalism and conflict in ethiopia african journals online. Flag of ethiopia adopted under the ethiopian peoples revolutionary democratic front eprdf regime.
At just over 77 million, ethiopia is the thirdmost populous country in africa. In this excerpt from our watch list 2020 for european policymakers, crisis group urges the eu and its member states to bolster efforts to prevent violence around the elections and support the governments reforms. Federalism and conflict management in ethiopia download. In doing so,this article explores the structure of ethnic federalism, causes and consequences of ethnic federalism and future prospects of the contemporary ethiopia. A comparative study of the somali and benishangulgumuz regions doctoral thesis in the contemporary world, state restructuring has become a global phenomenon. At the same time, ethnic federalism is preferred to the forced integration of different ethnic groups, the attendant suppression of group rights, and the absence of ethnocultural justice, all of which will lead to ethnic conflict and, of course, the dissolution of ethiopia. Background, present conditions and future prospects, authora. Ethnic federalism is a federal system of national government in which the federated units are defined and segregated by ethnicity using redlining policies, and in certain cases partitioning multi ethnic regions causing internal displacement of people due to largescale internal population transfers. Does the ethiopian context, its democratic credentials and its space for developing overarching identities, enable federalism to work as a mitigating force in conflicts between ethnic groups. The first ones are the normative federalist ideologies which often 4 see. Ethiopia adopted ethnic federalism and restructured the countrys regions along ethnic lines after the ethiopian peoples revolutionary democratic front eprdf took power, overthrowing the military junta in 1991.
The adoption of ethnic federalism in ethiopia was closely related with the problem of creating a state structure that could be used as instrument of managing the complex ethnolinguistic diversity of the country. The trouble with ethiopias ethnic federalism ethiopoint. The current regime in ethiopia adopted ethnic federalism and redesigned the country along ethnic lines as soon as it took political power in 1991. Ethiopia s somali regional state srs is no exception to this trend. The politics of ethnic identity and conflicts under ethnic. Its new constitution created a federal system largely consisting of ethnic based territorial units as a reaction to some longstanding historic conflicts. Ethnic conflict in ethiopia stretches back to the countrys imperial.
The coercive and developmental imperatives of the state that guided its implementation, however, have. The eprdfs rationale for introducing ethnic federalism. Its constitution provides for the secession of ethnic units, as an exception to the general pattern in africa. Federalism and ethnic conflict in ethiopia, by asnake kefale, abingdon, routledge. According to ottaway, political activists believed that ethnic federalism in ethiopia was a recipe for state disintegration 12. Usa, frg, multiethnic switzerland, presentday russia and multinational forms former. Using comparative and empirical approaches, this study analyses the impacts of federalism on ethnic conflicts in ethiopia in general and in the somali and benishangulgumuz regions in particular. 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 selfdetermination. The aim of this article is to examine the prevalence of ethnic conflict in ethiopia and to evaluate the potential causes of the conflicts that followed in the past twentyfive years. Now that the ethnic federal experiment is more than a decade old, it is possible to make a tentative evaluation of its performance. This book provides a detailed empirical study of this system at work in the complex multiethnic environment of southern ethiopia. According to the author, one of the significant problems of today. Although almost exclusively inhabited by ethnic somalis, inter ethnic strife.
Therefore, a further detail on whether ethnic federalism intensifies ethnic conflicts or a means to manage it can be analyzed from the following angles. Ethnic federalism in ethiopia is presumably believed to answer the historic nationalities question, but it does not help in reducing ethnic tensions and conflicts. Sibuhgebeyawtareke department of political science and international studies bahirdar university, bahirdar, ethiopia. Ethiopia is a multinational country with about 85 ethnolinguistic groups and since the. Furthermore, ethnic federalism has failed to resolve the national question. The eprdfs ethnic policy has empowered some groups but has not been accompanied by dialogue and reconciliation.
In practice ethnic federalism is contentious as it was applied in the case of former soviet union, which leads to the disintegration of those states. Ethnic federalism and selfdetermination for nationalities in. Without genuine multiparty democracy, the tensions and pressures in ethiopia s polities will only grow, greatly increasing the possibility of a violent eruption that would. In 1991, ethiopia established an ethnic federal system that gave full recognition to ethnic autonomy, while maintaining the unity of the state. Related terms are multi ethnic federalism and ethnofederalism this type of federation is identified above all with the governance of meles zenawi from the 1990s in ethiopia, where it has sometimes been known as zenawism. Federalism and ethnic conflict in ethiopia law ethiopia. Ethiopian ethnic federal system is significant in that it provides for secession of any ethnic unit. Pdf african journal on conflict resolution find, read and cite all the research you need on researchgate. Pdf conflict management in the ethiopian multinational. In this context, federalism has become attractive to multiethnic countries as a way of maintaining balance between such lofty ideas as selfrule and sharedrule. Switzerland, belgium and canada are good examples of this point.
Pdf on oct 1, 2015, legesse tigabu mengie published ethnic federalism and conflict in ethiopia. Ethiopia has about 80 ethnic groups nations, nationalities and peoples amounting to about 84 million people in 2012 projected population, csa, 2010. See discussions, stats, and author profiles for this publication at. Second, there persisted violent conflicts between various ethnic groups over a wide range of issues. Ethiopia s prime minister abiy has implemented important reforms but the changes have uncorked social tensions long bottled up by an authoritarian state. Challenges and opportunities abstract the study analyses the role of federalism in solving the national and ethnic conflicts. Opportunities and challenges addis abeba, apr 21 prensa latina with about 76 ethnic groups, ethiopia is based in a federal system that strengthens the shared identity and the social capital, underlined today local academicians. Panethiopian nationalism simple english wikipedia, the. Some of the authors of this publication are also working on these related projects. The adoption of ethnic federalism in ethiopia was closely related w. Thus, ethnic conflicts prevailing in ethiopia may be caused by such technicality problems and the ethnic federal arrangement in ethiopia needs an urgent reconsideration before the case moves to the worst scenario. The case of ethiopia has to be evaluated with these two preconditions in mind. The politics of ethnicity in ethiopia actors, power and.
The international community should take ethiopia s governance problems much more seriously and adopt a more principled position towards the government. In ethiopia, as also the author shows, what rather exists is centralized. But federalism may either reduce or exacerbate conflicts. Inter ethnic violence in ethiopia s somali regional state, 2017 2018 tobias hagmann and mustafe mohamed abdi introduction inter ethnic conflicts have been on the rise in ethiopia since 2018. Constitutional protection of ethnic minorities at the regional level it is argued that in order to evaluate the capacity of the ethiopian federal structure to accommodate ethnic diversity and to regulate ethnic conflicts, the research cannot be limited to an analysis of the constitutional mechanisms at the federal level. As means of conflict resolution and exercising of democracy, the government architected the ethnic federalism system in which the country was divided into 9 administrative constituents and 2 self. John mcgarry and brendan oleary, the political regulation of national and ethnic conflict, parliamentary affairs,vol. This book investigates the role of ethnic federalism in ethiopian politics, reflecting on a long history of division amongst the countrys political elites. Interethnic violence in ethiopias somali regional state.
Since 1991, ethiopia has been implementing an ethnolinguistic federal politicolegal arrangement. Opponents of ethnic federalism fear that it invites ethnic conflict. The federalism system in ethiopia has given representations to formerly marginalized nations and nationalities. Eth nic federalism in ethiopia 1 59 were convinced it was essential to. In ethiopia, when disputes arise between ethnic groups, the power to solve problems given to the house of federation rather than courts baylis, 2004. Ethnic discrimination occurred during the haile selassie and mengistu haile mariam epochs against afars, tigrayans. However, ethnic federalism has proved to be a venomous project designed to disintegrate the country gradually into smaller states as it has been witnessed over the past quarter of a century. The ethnic groups which account for about 1% and above of the total. The secession clause is one of the most controversial issues in public discourse in ethiopia and its diaspora communities today. In almost all corners of the world, there are currently efforts that aim at redesigning structures of states in response to demands of.
Ethnic federalism in ethiopia african studies centre leiden. In this essay we first look at the conventional understanding of federalism and ethnicity in order to have a. Above all, the conflicts seemed to be inter ethnic clashes resulting from sheer ethnic differences on account of the previously created inter ethnic distances among the various ethnic groups of the country. The current regime in ethiopia adopted ethnic federalism and redesigned. This would be abetted by an independent judiciary acting as an umpire when conflicts arise between the general government and regional governments. New frontiers in ethiopian politics paper presented at the first national conference on federalism, conflict and peace building. Ethnic federalism is a federal system of national government in which the federated units are defined according to ethnicity. Ethnic federalism and ethnic conflicts in ethiopia. Pdf ethnicbased federalism in ethiopia and its impact. It is the aim of this paper to juxtapose the benefits and the dangers of ethnic federalism as it is currently practiced in ethiopia.
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