The future of Ethiopia: developmental state or political marketplace?
The author finds commentary on Ethiopia鈥檚 current predicament to be polarised, generalised or not sufficiently attuned to the country鈥檚 history
Abstract
The author finds much of the commentary on Ethiopia鈥檚 current predicament to be polarised, generalised or not sufficiently attuned to the specifics of the country鈥檚 recent history. In his case, one prism through which he interprets Ethiopian developments is the analysis derived from numerous discussions that he had with Meles Zenawi between 1988 and 2012. He initially developed the framework of the 鈥榩olitical marketplace鈥� as a critique of Meles鈥檚 theory of the 鈥榙emocratic developmental state鈥�. In particular, he saw monetised or marketised politics as a threat to the state-led developmental order that Meles envisioned: He argued that as well as the two scenarios he envisaged, namely economic transformation versus a relapse into poverty and chaos, there was a third: a political marketplace. The rationale for this paper is that these two frameworks, the developmental state and the political marketplace, offer analytical insights that are important for understanding Ethiopia today.
This work is part of the Conflict Research Programme managed by the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) and funded by the UK Department for International Development.
Citation
De Waal, Alex (2018) The future of Ethiopia: developmental state or political marketplace? World Peace Foundation and the Conflict Research Programme, London School of Economics and Political Science, London, UK.
Link
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