The status of and prospects for the ethiopian federation This analysis has explored the Ethiopian federal system in its first nine years of
operation. During this period, the EPRDF strengthened its position as the
dominant party by building its own satellites in the regional states of Ethiopia.
In the following section, I will reflect on which consequences this centralisation
has for the status of the Ethiopian state. Should Ethiopia still be defined as
federal, or does the dominant position of the EPRDF disqualify the state from
being federal? A federation should be viewed as a dynamic process more than a
permanent and unchanging system. It is reasonable to expect that the operation
of the Ethiopian federation will develop and change in the future, dependent on
political events and circumstances. Some events that took place immediately
after my data collection was over will probably have important impacts on the
federalisation process in the coming time. The last section of the conclusion will
briefly mention these issues.
Does the de facto centralisation of the Ethiopian system disqualify it from being federal? In my overall conclusion, I claim that the centralisation of federal-regional
relations in Ethiopia has severely undermined the federal division of power.
This implies that the regional governments are not able to act independently
from the federal government and are acting more or less as extended arms of
the party in power at the central level. But do these facts disqualify the
functioning Ethiopian system from being federal?
In chapter 2 on theoretical approaches to federalism and federations, I
referred to discussions on what could disqualify political systems as federal.
Some theorists, among them Burgess (1993) and King (1982), argue that a
federation cannot be genuine if it is a result of or maintained by coercion from
above. Additionally, federal governments have to be subjected to the law and
committed to the principle of constitutionalism. On this basis, they claim that
the Soviet and Yugoslav federations cannot be considered as genuine
federations. These federations were maintained by the control of the communist
