Download or read book The Culture of Power in Contemporary Ethiopian Political Life written by Sarah Vaughan and published by . This book was released on 2003 with total page 177 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Politics of Contemporary Ethiopia written by Yohannes Gedamu and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2021-07-22 with total page 236 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.
Download or read book Reconfiguring Ethiopia The Politics of Authoritarian Reform written by Jon Abbink and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2016-04-22 with total page 269 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.
Download or read book The Politics of Ethnicity in Ethiopia written by Lovise Aalen and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2011-06-24 with total page 230 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.
Download or read book Understanding Contemporary Ethiopia written by Gérard Prunier and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2015 with total page 548 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "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.
Download or read book The Power of Continuity written by Eva Poluha and published by Nordic Africa Institute. This book was released on 2004 with total page 228 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "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.
Download or read book Democracy Elections and Constitutionalism in Africa written by Charles M. Fombad and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2021-03-18 with total page 624 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The third wave of democracy that reached African shores at the end of the Cold War brought with it a dramatic decline from 1990 onwards in dictatorships, military regimes, one-party governments, and presidents for life. Multiparty democracy was at the core of the constitutional revolutions that swept through most of Africa in those watershed years. However, that wave is either losing momentum or receding - or being reversed in its entirety. This volume examines democracy and elections in Africa, a focus motivated by two concerns. First, after 30 years it is important to take stock of the state of constitutional democracy on the continent. The democratic gains of the 1990s and 2000s seem to be falling by the wayside, with the evidence mounting that regimes are concealing authoritarianism under the veneer of elections, doing so in an international context where populist regimes are on the rise and free and fair multiparty elections are consequently no longer a given. It is becoming a battle to protect and retain constitutional democracy. The second reason for this volume's focus on democracy and elections is that multiparty democracy is essential for the proper functioning of the state in addressing the major problems facing Africa - internal conflict, inequality and lack of development, and poor governance and corruption. The focus of this volume is thus on how competitive politics or multiparty democracy can be realized and how, through competition, such politics could lead to better policy and practice outcomes.
Download or read book Everyday Practices of State Building in Ethiopia written by Davide Chinigò and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2022-07-28 with total page 273 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Everyday practices of state building interrogates the question about how to reinstate movement to our conceptualisation of state formation in Africa at a time in which the continent witnesses profound social and political transformations inscribed in increasingly globalised and localised dynamics. The book revisits key theories of the state adopting a detailed empirical approach that studies how state power operates in the everyday. It locates the mutual constitution of state and society in the wide set of scalar processes that articulate how state power structures social life and, simultaneously, creates the conditions of possibility for new openings and social formations. Drawing on five qualitative fieldworks in Ethiopia between 2006 and 2018, the book identify some important challenges that the ruling Ethiopian Peoples' Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) has encountered in institutionalising power through the developmental state, an ambitious model of state-mediated economic liberalisation intended to fulfil the broader re-organisation of the Ethiopian state along Ethnic Federalism since 1991. The case studies discuss how policies of resettlement, decentralisation, agriculture commercialisation, entrepreneurship, and industrialisation, inscribed dynamics of inclusion and exclusion in both rural and urban areas. Against these profound transformations beneficiaries casted new meanings to land, place, and work along struggles to secure reproduction. Interrogating the notions of scale and performativity, the book revisits dominant approaches that in African studies read state formation along centre-periphery relations, and ascribe cultural interpretations to the work of state power in the everyday, ultimately contributing to important discussions about authoritarianism and ethnonationalism in contemporary Ethiopia. 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, the political impact of natural resources, the dynamics and consequences of conflict, 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 series focuses 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, Professor of Democracy and International Development, University of Birmingham; Ricardo Soares de Oliveira, Professor of the International Politics of Africa, University of Oxford; Peace Medie, Senior Lecturer, School of Sociology, Politics, and International Studies, University of Bristol.
Download or read book Contested Power in Ethiopia written by Kjetil Tronvoll and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2011-12-02 with total page 313 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book offers a comparative ethnography of the contested powers that shape democratization in Ethiopia. Although multi-party elections have become the norm in Africa, relatively little is known about the significance of non-state actors such as traditional authorities in electioneering. Focusing on Ethiopia’s competitive 2005 elections, this book analyzes how customary leaders, political parties and state officials confronted and complemented each other during election time. Case studies reveal the contemporaneousness of traditional authorities in modern politics, but also how multi-party competition reproduces traditional relations of domination among ethnic groups. The book documents the importance of customary authority in selecting party candidates and providing legitimacy to political parties, but also their limitations in a country dominated by a semi-authoritarian party-state.
Download or read book Developmental Pathways to Poverty Reduction written by Y. Bangura and published by Springer. This book was released on 2015-06-17 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book looks at developmental pathways to poverty reduction that emphasize employment-centred structural change, social policies that both protect citizens and contribute to economic development, and types of politics that support economic transformation and participation of the poor in growth processes.
Download or read book The Big Gamble written by Milena Belloni and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 2019-12-17 with total page 242 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A free open access ebook is available upon publication. Learn more at www.luminosoa.org. Tens of thousands of Eritreans make perilous voyages across Africa and the Mediterranean Sea every year. Why do they risk their lives to reach European countries where so many more hardships await them? By visiting family homes in Eritrea and living with refugees in camps and urban peripheries across Ethiopia, Sudan, and Italy, Milena Belloni untangles the reasons behind one of the most under-researched refugee populations today. Balancing encounters with refugees and their families, smugglers, and visa officers, The Big Gamble contributes to ongoing debates about blurred boundaries between forced and voluntary migration, the complications of transnational marriages, the social matrix of smuggling, and the role of family expectations, emotions, and values in migrants’ choices of destinations.
Download or read book Ethiopia in Transit written by Pietro Toggia and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013-10-18 with total page 465 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The writings in this edition explore historical and contemporary issues in Ethiopia as the country underwent change and celebrated its new millennium. However, despite the recognizance of socio-economic and political changes, Ethiopia still faces enduring problems and challenges to its stability and continuity. The political past haunts the country while it is facing the future with optimism and hope. The contributors in this edition examine historical and contemporaneous issues with different lenses; they investigate the multiplicity and complexity of the contradictions that define traditional and modern Ethiopia. The contributions highlight the significance of the instability, dislocation, conflict and transformation inherent in any society. None of these writings, however, celebrate the forces that create the conflict; they are cautious not to glorify the present and romanticize the past. On the contrary, they seek to contextualize the challenges which the country faces with a view to open a dialogue, not exclusively among Ethiopians, but with scholars and social activists in the rest of Africa, as well as the international community. The contributions cover and examine such important topics as historiography, political power and legitimacy, ideology and radical views, knowledge transmission and modernity, emigration and the Ethiopian Diaspora, ethnic and linguistic identity, patriarchy and feminist discourses in a traditional society, public policies and economic development, traditional and modern art and culture, and neo-liberalism and globalization. This book was published as a special issue of African Identities.
Download or read book Thinking Outside the Box written by Eva Poluha and published by Xlibris Corporation. This book was released on 2016-01-28 with total page 416 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book sets out with the question why Ethiopia a country with one of the oldest still existing state-formations in the world and a farming population that has domesticated a number of indigenous food products, including coffee, oilseeds and Eragrostis teff - remains one of the poorest in the world. To answer this question the authors review the history of Ethiopia from the earliest centuries A.D. until the 21st century dispelling a number of prevalent myths in the process. The book covers topics such as ethnicity (a hot issue in todays Ethiopian politics), international relations with especially Britain and Italy, and the countrys lack of technical and economic progress. A survey of the current situation in Ethiopia sets the scene for comparisons with other countries. An examination of the history of the West illustrates how the autonomy of intellectual inquiry could promote a spiral of knowledge, pave the way for the Industrial Revolution and allow western countries to attain the highest standard of living in the world. A review of some East Asian countries (Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan) exemplifies how they could catch-up with the West. Against the backdrop of these studies, the authors find the basic causes for Ethiopias poverty to be missed or messed-up opportunities to adopt available scientific knowledge and technology. Premising that a decent living standard, a catch-up, should be the only reasonable goal also for Ethiopian citizens, the authors propose that the country must emphasize promotion of a) knowledge and information (rather than focusing numbers of school children and schools) and of b) entrepreneurship in all economic sectors. To boost these requirements successfully, the authors argue that all involved in the present development agenda need to think outside the box and reassess at least two common assumptions about Ethiopias future namely, that only heavy-handed state guidance can bring about rapid development and that peasants and pastoralists are ignorant and must be told what to do.
Download or read book Africa II 1 2020 written by AA. VV. and published by Viella Libreria Editrice. This book was released on 2020-03-18T18:06:00+01:00 with total page 145 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Articoli / Articles Jon Abbink, On “Good Governance”: Towards Reconciling State and Vernacular Views in Southwest Ethiopia Erika Grasso, Mapping a “Far Away” Town: Ethnic Boundaries and Everyday Life in Marsabit (Northern Kenya) Rosanna Tramutoli, A Sociolinguistic Description of Gíing’áwêakshòoda: A Register of Respect Among Barbaig Speakers in Tanzania Alice Bellagamba and Marco Gardini, What is a “Slave”? Neo-Abolitionism and the Shifting Meanings of Slavery in Two African Contexts (Highlands of Madagascar, Southern Senegal) Joanna Lewis, Dynasties and Decolonization: Chieftaincy, Politics and the Use of History at the Victoria Falls, from the Precolonial to the Post-independence Period Tom McCaskie, Alcohol and the Travails of Asantehene Osei Yaw Autori / Contributors
Download or read book Against Orthodoxy written by Trevor W. Harrison and published by UBC Press. This book was released on 2011-08-31 with total page 374 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: During the Cold War, nationalism fell from favour among theorists as an explanatory factor in history, as Marxists and liberals looked to class and individualism as the driving forces of change. The resurgence of nationalism after the collapse of the Soviet Union, however, called for a reconsideration of nationalism. Against Orthodoxy uses case studies from around the world to critically evaluate more than a quarter-century of scholarship. The authors argue that theories of nationalism have benefitted from fresh insights, but have also ossified into a new set of orthodoxies: some scholars characterize nationalism as an outgrowth of modernity, others view it as a European export, and still others see it as the brainchild of intellectuals. The theoretically informed and empirically grounded studies in this volume challenge these orthodoxies and offer new ways to think about nationalism. Collectively, these essays show that nationalism is not a singular phenomenon but rather a generative force reflecting complex historical, political, and cultural arrangements that defy simplistic explanations.
Download or read book Crisis in the Horn of Africa written by Peter Woodward and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2012-10-05 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The most dangerous corner of Africa is its north-eastern Horn where instability reigns and terrorism thrives on the antagonisms of all it governments.The Horn of Africa comprising Ethiopia,Sudan and now South Sudan,Somalia,Djibouti,Eritrea,and stretching to include Kenya and Uganda, is a pivotal geopolitical pressure point in world politics.It stands at the hinge of Africa and the Middle East.It was of vital interest to the superpowers during the Cold War,attracting constant and unprofitable intervention.In the post-Cold War period regional political chaos,including failed states,terrorism and international piracy,has struck the death blow to the ambitions of the International Community's New World Order. The problems of the Horn,political,ideological,religious and ethnic, are compounded by natural disasters of widespread drought and famine,and have invited intervention by governments and NGOs.Tony Blair in his speech on the 'Doctrine of the International Community' referred to the suffering of Africa as 'a scar on the conscience of humanity'.But the New World Order's aim of 'good governance'-free elections,a free press,independent judiciary,recognition of human rights,gender equality and effective government free of corruption- seems as far off as ever. Of the many striking examples perhaps Somalia stands out as a failed state-and predatory state to the majority of its peoples-and as a seat of international terror and a society which has even spawned the present scourge of international piracy.International attention on the Horn is not limited to altruism in face of suffering with the burgeoning economic superpowers,China and India, exploiting mineral and land resources. So international rivalry-a traditional factor in the Horn's instability-will continue to haunt both its peoples and the international community. Peter Woodward's survey of the history, and regional and international relations of the Horn of Africa shows the crises have deep historical roots predating present state boundaries.These have been shaped by imperialism,sharpened by independence and by the Cold War.Chaos in the Horn has frustrated the ambitions of the post-Cold War's New World Order.This book is essential reading for all students of history,international relations and policy planners.
Download or read book State Recognition and Democratization in Sub Saharan Africa written by L. Buur and published by Springer. This book was released on 2007-11-26 with total page 248 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Being critical and empirically grounded, the book explores the complex, often counter-balancing consequences of the involvement of traditional authority in the wave of democratization and liberal-style state-building that has rolled over sub-Saharan Africa in the past decade.
