The State and Development in Ethiopia

This book is about misguided development. It shows how a state-dedicated development strategy can destroy the productive capacities of people and their means of livelihood. It is a major new account of Ethiopia's contemporary socioeconomic and political history, and its future development problems and prospects. Ethiopia's most recent history has been marked by a fusion of famine, ecological disaster, and massive poverty. This despite the country's considerable resources: fertile land not yet under intensive cultivation, grazing land underused, and enormous water resources poorly exploited. Little research has been done to explain this incongruity. Girma Kebbede fills in this gap by providing a thorough examination of major socioeconomic and political factors that have kept the majority of the Ethiopian population poor and extremely vulnerable to adverse natural phenomena. The post-revolutionary political and socioeconomic transformation of Ethiopia resulted in the establishment of a highly authoritarian state controlled by a small bureaucratic elite that retained power through force and intimidation, and appropriated surplus by virtue of its control of state power and major sectors of the economy. The author argues that, as a result of the state's ill-conceived development strategies and priorities, and its intrusiveness into all aspects of social and economic life, the country was thrown into a perilous economic condition, with social dislocation and political instability. This book will be of interest to development policymakers, environmentalists, development aid donors, and non-governmental organizations involved in development activities in Africa, as well as to undergraduate and graduate students taking courses in economics, political science, geography, ecology, sociology, and demography.