Ethiopia and Political Renaissance in Africa

Front Cover
Nova Publishers, 2006 - Political Science - 290 pages
The Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia has made fresh attempts to deal with the intra-state challenges to the 'nation-state' in multi-ethnic societies. This book examines how that country is trying to implement a programme of decentralising state power to ethnically-based regional constituencies, which could be of interest to other countries in Africa. The study reveals that the Ethiopian Experiment questions conventional images of polyethnic states. This book presents a practical example of the formulation of new approaches towards ethnicity, federalism and objective nation-/statehood, attempting to examine the changing meaning of ethnicity and nationalism throughout history in Western Europe, to discuss how they impacted on state formations in Africa, and to consider why Ethiopia stands unique in the process of state-building versus ethnicity. The study elaborates the factors which convinced the new Ethiopian leadership to embark on such a revolutionary path, one on which each of the country's Nations, Nationalities and Peoples is guaranteed the right to self-government, self-determination and even independence. federalism and the transition to democracy.
 

Contents

Introduction
1
Introduction to the Study
3
Eighteenth and NineteenthCentury Western European StateCentred Nationalism
15
Modern Ethiopian Nationalism 1991
63
The Ideological Orientation and Political Doctrine of the TPLFEPRDF 1991
75
The Transitional Period and Ethnicity 22 July 1991 21 August 1995
91
Constitutional Interpretation and Implementation
115
The Political Security and SocioEconomic Impact of Institutional Ethnic Federalism on National Regional States 1995 2000
137
Institutional Ethnic Federalism and Civil Society 1995 2000
179
Concluding Insights
211
Glossary of Acronyms
247
Bibliography
251
Index
279
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Page 19 - The principle of sovereignty resides essentially in the Nation; no body of men, no individual, can exercise authority that does not emanate expressly from it.