Left behind : the story of the Ethiopian pursuit of democracy

Abstract

Riddled with autocratic leaders, human rights violations, and a disregard for the rule of law, democratic realisation in much of Africa remains poor - particularly true for Ethiopia. A nation without a quintessential colonial history, it has nevertheless been strongly affected by Western and Eastern political theories. In its ostensible transition to democratic rule, Ethiopia has formally transplanted pre-existing, foreign, governance approaches and formally implemented them domestically. Contrary to the democratic order they espouse, Ethiopian political leaders have leveraged a façade of democracy to license authoritarian rule. To that effect, Ethiopia remains a nation struggling to keep up with the tides of democracy and the demands of its people. Today, Ethiopia serves as a tale of an African dream unfulfilled. One of Ethiopia’s greatest challenges has been its poor political organisation and its failure to establish a successful democratic order. This thesis assesses the historical trajectory of democracy in Ethiopia by interrogating the quality of the following three democratic elements (i) separation of powers and checks and balances (ii) free and fair elections, and (iii) freedom of speech. These three elements of democracy are by no means to be interpreted as absolute benchmarks for democratic realisation, however, considering the arguable universality of these elements as pillars of democracy, they prove relevant as references for assessment in this case. This paper does not assess democratic elements beyond these. Additionally, it does not offer an entirely new democratic framework for the country. The thesis seeks to contribute to conversations on building an appropriate democratic framework for Ethiopia. The main research question of this paper is: Does Ethiopia’s current governmental framework truly constitute a democratic approach? The sub-questions are: (i) What democratic model(s) have successive regimes in Ethiopia adopted? (ii) What are the transplanted elements of Ethiopia’s democratic framework? (iii) How have they failed or succeeded to facilitate democracy in Ethiopia? (iv) How can Ethiopia’s democratic framework be redesigned if at all? This thesis is divided into five chapters. The first introduces the background, methodologies, and scope of the research. The second introduces the conceptual and legal frameworks of democracy and contextualises the assessment criteria and evaluation methodologies that the thesis is based on. Chapter three narrates the socio-political history of Ethiopia, during the reign of Emperor Haile Selassie and the Derg. The fourth chapter analyses the democratic approaches of the Ethiopian Peoples’ Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) between 1991 and 2019, and the Prosperity Party (PP) from 2019- to 2022 and provides an assessment of their democratic frameworks in theory and in practice. The fifth chapter offers conclusions and recommendations. The findings suggest that Ethiopia has leveraged an eclectic construction of a democratic model. Although having formally established a multi-party ethnic federation, the TPLF rejected the liberal democratic order that customarily accompanies a federalist structure and replaced it with the dogma of ‘revolutionary democracy’. A hybrid ideology of Leninism and liberal democracy applied through a lens of ethnic diversity, ‘revolutionary democracy’ is foundationally controversial and oppositional to the organisation of a federal state. Furthermore, despite constitutional guarantees of separation of powers, free and fair elections and freedom of speech, the Ethiopian federal government has failed to facilitate rule for, of and by the people in practice. Separation of powers in Ethiopia has proven to be an unachievable notion. Possibly handicapped by the nation’s long-running history with ‘big man rule’, Ethiopia more accurately functions as a unitary state. Elections have also proven a contentious issue, even a farce, in Ethiopia. Although consistently holding national elections since 1995 (save the 2020 election), they have failed to yield a political victor other than for the EPRDF and the Prosperity Party. Similarly, freedom of speech lacks effect in practice, despite its guarantees in the constitution, it has been severely limited through domestic laws that curtail Ethiopians’ constitutionally protected rights to freedom of expression. Furthermore, the federal government’s media monopoly put access to receive and disseminate information in the hands of the ruling party, an arguably authoritarian regime that has been unwilling to relinquish power over the past 30 years. With regards to the ultimate success or failure of Ethiopia's democratic framework, if the benchmark for success is the mere existence of constitutional and legislative guarantees for the discussed elements of democracy, then the Ethiopian framework seems to have failed. Considering domestic legislation continues to undercut the constitutional guarantees to democracy, the democratic framework fails to holistically protect the separation of powers, free and fair elections, and freedom of speech. In the sense that the democratic elements considered in this thesis are protected constitutionally, the Ethiopian democratic framework meets the requirements to be considered a democracy. However, where Ethiopia’s framework largely falls short is in the existing domestic legislation that hinders the realisation of such democratic elements and the failure to ensure the enforcement of constitutional mandates. Therefore, despite an explicit constitutional declaration of democracy and corresponding constitutional protections, the conflicting domestic legislation has resulted in a contradictory democratic framework and thus Ethiopia fails to provide comprehensive legal assurance and practically establish democracy.