Federalism_in_Ethiopia_Discontents_vices.pptx

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1. Insight Into Ethiopian Federalism: Virtues, Discontents, International experiences, way forward Binyam Yitay (PhD) Paper presented at Policy Studies Institute (PSI), Addis Ababa –Ethiopia 09 April 2021

2. Federalism: Gist A lliances of Greek city states or mediaeval Italian towns. Switzerland, the Netherlands (the United Provinces ). Foundation of the United States of America. Philadelphia Convention (1787 ).

3. Federalism: Gist Peace (value aspect of federalism developed by Immanuel Kant, 1979 ). D emocracy at all levels. Efficiency.

4. Federalism: Gist Federalism- Foedus (a Greek word) – treaty or obligation. A political system that is formed through a treaty or agreement between central governance and it’s subsidiaries. Federalism – more than constitutional allocated powers among two or more levels of government. A means (not an end) of addressing injustices of the past.

5. Federalism: Gist Better to understand the six political pillars of federalism: -Autonomy of states -National integration - Centralisation - De- centralisation - Nationalisation -Regionalisation. (Kumar,2020 )

6. Federalism: Gist Moral essence: Toleration Cooperation Compromise Bargaining Negotiation Reciprocity Obligation Responsibility

7. Federalism in Ethiopia Imperial Unitary Federalism. Response pre-1991 form of governance. 10 regional states and 2 city states. Self determination and self rule. Philip Mawood (2019) – Diversified countries like Ethiopia, federalism is chosen not merely for administration requirements but for the very survival of the nation. “ the strength of a people is measured by the welfare of the weakest of its members.” Preamble of the Switzerland constitution.

8. Virtues of Ethiopian Federalism Redressing historical maladministration , Historically Ethiopians have had a skeptical view of centralized power. Article 50(8) FDRE constitution. Problem solving at local level Local officials are closer to the problems of their areas. “ የአገሩን ሰርዶ በአገሩ በሬ ” Better access to leaders and convenient for day to day administrations. During Unitary governance system – the people used to made tedious journey to Addis Ababa to present their case. Exacerbated with limited, even none means of communication and infrastructure. Reduce time, energy, resource waste.

9. Virtues of Ethiopian Federalism Accommodation of diversified opinions Opportunity to formulate new policies. Based on the respective region’s demography, language, way life, and culture. E.g. Family law Policy innovation - diffuse to other regions and the federal government.

10. Discontents of Ethiopian Federalism Economic disparities across region’s. “Race to bottom” dynamics. Regions compete to attract investment by unfairly lowering taxes and easing regulations. Conflicts – associated with self determination/ or secession, resource sharing, political power, representation, identity, and boundaries. Somalia, Afar and Oromia regions – established permanent institutions dealing with border affairs(Habtu,2003). Lack of accountability – Overlap of boundaries used as an excuse for failed policies, inadequate service deliveries. Excessive emphasis on ethnic variables. Ethnic competition and confrontation over local resources and political positions - forced migration of non-residents and subsequent violence of basic human and democratic rights, death, and confiscation of property (Temesgen,2015).

11. Discontents of Ethiopian Federalism Effect on foreign diplomacy. It may create weak federal government. “It would be injurious to the interests of the country to provide for a weak central authority which would be incapable of ensuring peace, of coordinating vital matters of common concern and of speaking effectively for the whole country in the international sphere” Jawaharlal Nehru. Trend of de-facto single party system - challenge for the maintenance of the federalism system. ( M engisteab, 2019). Undefined minority rights – aim to protect them against despositism by the dominant group. Yet, minority rights should not be misconstrued to the extreme. A minority can destablise or manipulated the whole federal system.

12. International Experience Argentina , Australia , Austria , Belgium , Bosnia and Her c egovina, Brazil, Canada , Comoros , Ethiopia, Germany, India, Malaysia , Mexico , Micronesia , Nigeria, Pakistan, Russia , St . kitts and N evis, Spain, Switzerland, United Arab Emirates , United States of America, Venezuela

13. International Experience Nigeria – over 140 million people, over 250 different ethnicities, 36 states and one federal capital territory(The Nigerian constitution, 1999; Liza,2017). Nigeria – three tiers of government: Federal, states, and local. Both the National and the states have legislative powers. But when a law is produced at the state level become inconsistent with national law, the national law prevails. India – diversified country. The Indian constitution does not provide a single phrase on self determination up to secession. Setting a limit on the maximum number of seats for ethnic groups in the second chamber (House of federation in Ethiopian context). It enables minorities to collectively counterbalance the opinion of majorities in the House. India – the lower house engage in the law making process.

14. The W ay Forward Constitutional reform, Countering the ethnic or geographic schools of federalism. It necessitates more studies, researches. Historical, economic and social variables. The House of Federation has to involve in the law making process. Federalism can serve as a tool to pluralism, tolerance and harmony. Both the ruling party and the opposition parties genuinely tolerate competing political parties in their respective regional radius. Principles of democracy must be introduced at all levels: at the place of work, in residential communities, in educational institutions.

15. The Way Forward Bottom up democracy. Promoting Unifying symbols ( e.g The victory of Adwa). Well functioning and autonomous institutions. Facilitate checks and balances and accountability. Establishing a constitutional court. Curriculum development – to enhance people to people relation, religious, clan chiefs, and elders. Federal Ethiopia needs to establish normal relations with all its neighboring states. There are co-ethnics residing in all of them: Djibouti, Eritrea, Kenya, Somalia, Sudan, South Sudan. Civic societies – enhance inclusive education, awareness regarding federal governance. Civic societies could work on narrowing socioeconomic gaps of regions. “Winner-takes-all” democracy never been successful in Ethiopia. Consensus and compromise. Strengthen The National Reconciliation Commission – established in February 2019.

16. References Ambar K (2020) “The paradox of Centralized Federalism: An Analysis of the challenge to India’s Federal design”. ORF Occasional paper no 272, September 2020. India: Observer Research Foundation. Alemu H (2003) Ethnic federalism in Ethiopia: Background, present conditions and future prospects. Paper presented at the second EAF international symposium on contemporary development issues in Ethiopia July 11-12,2003, Ghion Hotel Addis Ababa. Constitution of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, 1995, Addis Ababa. Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria,1991, Lagos. Constitution of the Switzerland, 1991, Zurich. Constitution of India,1949, Bombay. International Crisis Group (2009) Ethiopia: Ethnic Federalism and its Discontents. Nairobi: Africa Report No. 153. James M (2017) “ India’s states: The struggle to govern”, Studies in Indian politics 4(1), (2016):1-16. Liza de Nijs (2017) Federalism in Nigeria: The effect of institutional arrangements on ethnic conflict in Nigeria. (Unpublished) Mengisteab K (2019) Federalism in Ethiopia’s Transformation, in The Oxford Handbook of the Ethiopian Economy edited by Cheru F, etal . UK: Oxford. Patrick R (1979)Federalism in Kant's Political Philosophy 9(4).Oxford University Press . Roshni D (2017) Federal system in India and the constitutional provisions. Innovative Journal of social sciences vol 5 (1) , 2017, 1-4 ISSN 2347-5544. Temesgen SM (2015) Weaknesses of ethnic federalism in Ethiopia. International Journal of Humanities and social science invention. ISSN (online): 2319-7722, ISSN (Print) 2319-7714.Volume 4 issue 11, Nov 2015.

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