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2022 | OriginalPaper | Buchkapitel

5. Intergovernmental Relations and Ethnic Federalism in Ethiopia

verfasst von : Zemelak A. Ayele, Yonatan T. Fessha

Erschienen in: Intergovernmental Relations in Divided Societies

Verlag: Springer International Publishing

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Abstract

The Constitution has created nine subnational units principally on the basis of ethnic criteria. Whether and how these units would interact with the federal government and with each other was barely an issue in the past three decades, given that all levels of government were controlled by a single political party and IGR was thus an intra-party affair. However, after three years of public protests (2015–2018) and the election of a new prime minister, the states are increasingly assertive of their autonomy from federal intrusion, with intergovernmental disputes growing louder and more frequent. This chapter examines how a federal arrangement that takes ethnicity as a basis for state organisation contends with the ethnic undertone of the emerging intergovernmental disputes, an undertone which is shaping debate on and attitudes towards the establishment of formal IGR institutions.

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Vorheriges Kapitel Plurinationalism, Devolution and Intergovernmental Relations in the United Kingdom

Nächstes Kapitel Redundancy of Existence: Intergovernmental Relations in India

The speech (which is in Amharic) is available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h4Nxi83K0_I.

The affiliate parties were those ethnic-based parties which controlled the other five states (Afar, Benishangul-Gumuz, Gambella, Hareri and Somali). These parties had programmes identical to those of the EPRDF and worked closely with the latter. They were not, however, accepted as full members of the coalition.

These are the Amhara, Afar, Tigray, Somali and Oromia states (Constitution, article 47(1)).

The Constitution entitles intra-state ethnic minorities to exercise territorial autonomy either at the local level within the state where they are found or through the establishment of a new state. Currently, there are more than 25 ethnic local governments in five states (Constitution, articles 39(3) and 47(2)). See also Ayele & Fessha (2012).

The FoF is ‘[an] international organization that develops and shares comparative expertise on the practice of federal and decentralized governance’. Retrieved from http://www.forumfed.org/who-we-are.

https://static-content.springer.com/image/chp%3A10.1007%2F978-3-030-88785-8_5/MediaObjects/510435_1_En_5_Figa_HTML.png

The Constitution requires boundary disputes to be resolved primarily through intergovernmental cooperation. Failing that, the HoF becomes involved in the resolution of such disputes. It is also mandated to serve as mediator between states whenever there are disputes.

The HoF’s mandate also indicates that it is meant to bring together communities that enjoy territorial autonomy and resolve disputes that may arise between them. It has also the mandate to ‘promote the equality of the Peoples of Ethiopia enshrined in the Constitution and promote and consolidate their unity’ (Constitution, article 62(4)).

The SNNPR has a second chamber, fashioned after the HPR, called the Council of Nationalities in which every ethnic community in the region is represented. The Harari state has also two houses: in the lower house, Harari and Oromo communities are represented in equal number; the upper house represents solely the Hararis.

See, for instance, Fiseha (2009).

See also Vaughan (2006).

This is now replaced by another ministry called Ministry of Peace.

A member of the Amhara state government who rejects this would be pressured to renounce the claim and, in a process known as gimgema, criticises him- or herself for harbouring ‘chauvinistic views’. In the worst-case scenario, the individual might be expelled from the party and dismissed from whatever government position he or she holds. As the events that unfolded in the last three years reveal, the animosity between the two-state governments was hitherto kept in check by the party structure. Gimgema was a mechanism for maintaining discipline in the EPRDF; it was also used for rooting out those with dissenting views. For more information, see Milkias (2001).

Shimelis Abdissa, the president of the Oromia state, spoke about this and other explosive matters in a private meeting with Oromo scholars and investors. A leaked recording of his speech is available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8hIwo4Yeqoc.

Indeed, among the states that rejected the idea of formalising IGR was Tigray, even though for a different reason. Tigray’s resistance to formalised IGR seems to stem from the belief that the constitutional design of the Ethiopian federal system is complete and contains every important component that such a system could possibly require.

For more on the TPLF’s stance towards the Afar community and state, see Yasin (2008).

Aalen, L. (2011). The politics of ethnicity in Ethiopia: Actors power and mobilization under ethnic federalism. Brill.

Afar Revolutionary Democratic Unity Front (ARDUF). (2018, February 16). Press release – Ethiopia: The Afar region and TPLF’s attempts to control the roads and sea outlet. https://ecadforum.com/2018/02/16/ethiopia-the-afar-region-and-tplfs-attempts-to-control-the-roads-and-sea-outlet/amp/

Ayele, Z., & Fessha, Y. (2012). The constitutional status of local government in federal systems: The case of Ethiopia. Africa Today, 50(4), 89–109.CrossRef

Fiseha, A. (2009). The system of intergovernmental relations (IGR) in Ethiopia: In search of institutions and guidelines. Journal of Ethiopian Law, 23, 96–113.

Fiseha, A., & Ayele, Z. (2017). Concurrent powers in the Ethiopian federal system. In N. Steytler (Ed.), Concurrent powers in federal systems: Meaning, making, managing (pp. 241–260). Brill Nijhoff.

International Crisis Group. (2009). Ethiopia: Ethnic federalism and its discontents. Africa Report, 153.

Mekonnen, W. (1969). On the question of nationalities in Ethiopia. Marxists.org. https://www.marxists.org/history/erol/ethiopia/nationalities.pdf

Milkias, P. (2001). Ethiopia, the TPLF and roots of the 2001 political tremor. International Conference on African Development Archives. https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1051&context=africancenter_icad_archive

Nigussie, A. (2015). The federal-state intergovernmental relationship in Ethiopia: Institutional framework and its implication on state autonomy. Mizan Law Review, 9(2), 341–368.

Parker, J. (2014). Comparative federalism and intergovernmental agreements: Analysing Australia. Routledge.CrossRef

Steytler, N. (2019). The dynamic relationship between devolution and constitutionalism in South Africa. In C. M. Fombad & N. Nico Steytler (Eds.), Decentralization and constitutionalism in Africa. Oxford University Press.

The Economist. (2019, November 23). Ethiopia’s Sidama people vote for autonomy. The Economist. https://www.economist.com/middle-east-and-africa/2019/11/23/ethiopias-sidama-people-vote-for-autonomy

Vaughan, S. (2006). Responses for ethnic federalism in Ethiopia’s southern region. In D. Turton (Ed.), Ethnic federalism: The Ethiopian experience in comparative perspective (pp. 181–207). Addis Ababa University Press.

Wakjira, K. (2017). Institutionalization of IGR in the Ethiopian federation: Towards cooperative or coercive federalism? Ethiopian Journal of Federal Studies, 4(2), 121–160.

Yasin, Y. M. (2008). Political history of the Afar in Ethiopia and Eritrea. Africa Spectrum, 43(1), 39–65.

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Titel: Intergovernmental Relations and Ethnic Federalism in Ethiopia
verfasst von: Zemelak A. Ayele
Yonatan T. Fessha
Verlag: Springer International Publishing
Buch: Intergovernmental Relations in Divided Societies
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-88784-1

Electronic ISBN: 978-3-030-88785-8

Copyright-Jahr: 2022
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-88785-8_5

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