The Four Faces of Ethiopian Federalism

Abstract

Ethiopian federalism has been considered ethnic federalism both in domestic scholarly and policy discussions and internationally in comparative federalism studies. I argue that Ethiopian federalism is so much more than ‘ethnic federalism’ and even more than federalism itself. Ethiopian federalism has four faces, which are unitary, federal, confederal, and ethnocratic. While its unitary feature defers the federal promises, its confederal aspect overshadows the federal spirit. Similarly, its ethnocratic institutional arrangement not only creates ‘citizens’ and ‘subjects’, but also displaces the national project of creating a federal democracy to the periphery. By taking the Ethiopian constitution and the political theory that underpins it seriously, this article demonstrates how the four faces of Ethiopian federalism have made the practice of constitutional democracy difficult in the past and how they could presumably make it more arduous in the future