Federalism, Local Government and Minority Protection in Ethiopia: Opportunities and Challenges

Beken, Christophe Van der

doi:10.1017/s0021855314000205

Cited by 15 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 3 publications

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“…In Ethiopia, ethnofederalism reduced civil violence by appeasing each region's titular groups. Yet, these often monopolized local power, which fueled agitation by non-titular groups for local power-sharing or regional boundary changes (Juon and Rohrbach 2023;Van der Beken 2015).…”

Section: Territorial Autonomy and Subnational Tensionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Territorial Autonomy and the Trade-Off between Civil and Communal Violence

JUON

2024

Am Polit Sci Rev

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To safeguard peace in multi-ethnic countries, scholars and practitioners recommend territorial autonomy. However, there is limited cross-national research on how autonomy affects subnational ethnic conflict, and increasing concern that it redirects ethnic violence from the national to the subnational level. Addressing this gap, I argue that autonomy generates tensions over subnational government control and the distribution of local economic goods. However, whether these turn violent depends on ethnic representation in the central government. If groups are unequally represented, violent escalation is more likely due to information and commitment problems and subnational majoritarianism. To test these arguments, I provide new time-variant data on subnational boundaries, territorial autonomy, and ethnically attributed violence. I conduct a systematic analysis of all multi-ethnic countries between 1989 and 2019, instrumental variable analyses, and tests of my argument’s intermediate implications. My findings underline the importance of complementing autonomy with inclusive central governments to attenuate the risks of subnational violence.

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Section: Territorial Autonomy and Subnational Tensionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Territorial Autonomy and the Trade-Off between Civil and Communal Violence

JUON

2024

Am Polit Sci Rev

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“…The constitution allows political parties to be formed along ethnic lines and advocates ethnicized federal regional states. Some consider it as the source of conflict and political havoc (Milkias & Metaferia, 2005;Taye, 2017), while others hail it as a cornerstone for the unprecedented respect of the rights of the various ethnic communities in the country (Agegnehu & Dibu, 2015;Alene & Worku, 2017;Beken, 2012Beken, , 2015Yohannes, 2017).…”

Section: Paradigms In Transition -Journalism and Journalism Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ethnicity as journalism paradigm: Polarization and political parallelism of Ethiopian news in transition

Kebede

Tveiten

2023

ONLINE J COMMUN MEDIA TECHNOL

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In the wake of the 2018 liberalization of journalistic freedoms in Ethiopia, new waves of political unrest and a re-tightened grip on the media have emerged. A key feature in this context is the increasing reference to ethnic contrasts reflecting regional differences. While Ethiopia is a unique country in the African context in the sense of never having been colonized (with the exception of a brief period of Italian occupation), features of the contemporary media situation are also of general validity in understanding political realities in other African countries. This paper explores the concept of ‘journalism paradigms’ in that regard, with the follow-up question of how an understanding of journalism paradigms founded on ethnic boundaries might also contribute toward a more distinctly ‘African’ journalism research framework.

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“…To sketch out the situations, for instance, the constitution of Afar 5 and Tigray 6 also acknowledge the existence of other ethnic groups besides the titular ones (Beken, 2015). The Harari constitution recognizes only the Harari and Oromo as indigenous groups though significant numbers of dispersed minorities in the region 7 .…”

Section: Internal Minorities In Ethiopian Ethnic Federalismmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Matrix of Ethnic Federalism in Ethiopia in Protecting Internal Minority Rights: Examining Perceptions in Oromia Regional State

Kasse¹,

Asrat

2022

J Ethn Cult Stud

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This study aimed to analyze the matrix of ethnic federalism in protecting internal minority rights in Ethiopia via Goba and Robe towns as a case study at Oromia regional state. The post-1990s political formula of Ethiopia was designed considering all ethnolinguistic groups as inhabitants of their own defined territory. It seems that in the architecture of the constitution, there will be ethnic homogeneous states. But, the reality in the ground has shown that none of the units is purely homogenous due to economic migration, (re)settlement, villagization programs, and freedom of movement granted in the constitution. A mixed approach with a cross-sectional survey was used. Questionnaires, interviewees, focused group discussion, and document analyses were used as a primary data. Snowball and purposive sampling were used to select survey respondents. In both town administrations, a kin situation exists; there are constitutional and other legal frameworks gaps, inducing mistrust and tension between minorities and dominant groups, systematic segregation, denying fair and effective representation at levels of government. Therefore, adequately recognizing and legalizing the rights of internal minorities should be the prime duty of the region, establishing particular institutions mandated to protect internal minorities, and government should work on fostering people-to-people integration to reverse the looming mistrust.

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Federalism, Local Government and Minority Protection in Ethiopia: Opportunities and Challenges

Cited by 15 publications

References 3 publications

Territorial Autonomy and the Trade-Off between Civil and Communal Violence

Territorial Autonomy and the Trade-Off between Civil and Communal Violence

Ethnicity as journalism paradigm: Polarization and political parallelism of Ethiopian news in transition

The Matrix of Ethnic Federalism in Ethiopia in Protecting Internal Minority Rights: Examining Perceptions in Oromia Regional State

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