Ethnic Federalism in a Dominant Party State: The Ethiopian Experience 1991-2000 Lovise Aalen r 2002: 2

EPRDF federalism: ideologically founded but pragmatically used
As Riker (1964) points out, all writers of federal constitutions have a desire to
make benefit from the political reorganisation that follows rather than
enhancing freedom and democracy. When considering the Ethiopian opposition
parties’ critique of the EPRDF’s federal project, it is rather apparent that the
ruling coalition cannot escape the accusation of being pragmatically rather

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than ideologically and democratically minded when introducing a federal
system along ethnic lines. Despite a clear ideological and normative connection
to the idea of national self-determination, the process of institutionalising the
principle through the drafting of the federal constitution has severely lacked
transparency. This has made the Ethiopian opposition as well as researchers
observing the process sceptical to the EPRDF’s intentions of introducing a
federal system and has made many of them conclude that the ruling party lacks
commitment to ideas other tha5n that of staying in power.
Divide and rule?
One of the harshest critics of the current Ethiopian government, Marina
Ottaway (1999:19), claims that the TPLF’s only priority after the fall of the old
regime was to stay in power and keep the control of other opposition forces
that they had gained through military struggles. After many years of war
between the Derg-controlled central state and ethnic liberation movements,
ethnicity had become a political power that could not be removed or ignored.
Thus, a TPLF-controlled centralised unitary state without ethnic concessions
would have caused the same ethnic revolts that had put down the previous
regimes. In order to stay in power they needed to reorganise the state.
Federalism and ethnic division of the country served this purpose. Poluha
(1998: 39) claims that by introducing ethnically based federalism, the
opposition that the EPRDF feared (including the OLF) was disarmed and
neutralised because the issues it had worked for, like ethnic regionalisation,
were apparently resolved. By taking over the ethnic agenda, the EPRDF has
been able to keep other key issues out of the political limelight. Young, who
basically supports the idea of ethnic federalism, also admits that ethnic
federalism is the best means for the TPLF to retain a leading position in an
Ethiopian state where the Tigrayans constitute a minority (1996a:532).
The only way to democratise and avert disintegration?
The EPRDF itself does in a way acknowledge that there were pragmatic
considerations behind the introduction of ethnic federalism, but tries to present
its intentions as more noble than those mentioned above. Meles Zenawi
claimed that all they were trying to do was to stop the war, and to prevent a
new one erupting. He also tried to legitimise the introduction of ethnic
federalism by claiming that it was the only way of democratically restructuring
the country, enhancing the political participation of the Ethiopian population
and giving ethno-regional rights to the previously oppressed peoples or
nationalities. The argument is based on the assumption that democracy can
only be established through ethnicity, through regionally defined ethnic rights.
The EPRDF’s argument for ethnic federalism as a way of averting
disintegration is supported by several researchers. Kidane Mengisteab claims
that ethnic federalism was “a bold effort to avert the country’s total
disintegration and the permanent state of conflict that a total disintegration
would entail” (1992:12), and was “essential to stop the bloodshed and mend
ethnic relations” (1999:126). Young argues that decentralisation along ethnic

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lines was the only approach that could ensure the survival and unity of the
Ethiopian state into the 21
st
century (1996a: 532). It has also been pointed out
that ethnic federalism was a response to the legacy of the ethnic domination
and marginalisation in the history of the Ethiopian state and the need for a
state reconstruction that delegitimised the old leadership elites (Abbink
1995:151). Federalism is then not only a way of maintaining unity, but also a
means to overcome the Amhara hegemony and provide a structure in which the
EPRDF could govern. The TPLF attempted to achieve legitimacy by the
promotion of a convincing alternative to a centralised state with its records of
past failures and war (Young 1997:202).