After centuries of monarchical rule, 14 years of military rule, and three years of a one-party political system, Ethiopia adopted a constitution that provides for multiparty democracy. The Constitution establishes democratic institutions and contains democratic principles that are vital for competitive multiparty democracy; it also guarantees civil liberties and political rights, including freedom of expression and association that are critical in this regard. Be that as it may, in the past two-and-a-half decades, no competitive multiparty democracy has existed in Ethiopia. Instead, an electoral authoritarian system was instituted that allowed the Ethiopian Peoples’ Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) and its affiliates to enjoy exclusive control over every level and unit of government. This was so because, among other things, even if the domestic and global political dynamics that were at work when the EPRDF came to power in the 1990s left it with no choice but to constitutionalize multipartyism, its violent history, its vanguardist self-perception, and the developmental-state paradigm it later endorsed have driven it into electoral authoritarianism. The various formal and informal mechanisms that the party put in place, the socioeconomic structure of the country, and the minimal international pressure it faced when not democratizing allowed it successfully to retain its incumbency for more than two decades. New domestic and international dynamics put pressure on the EPRDF to open up the political space and to change its leadership leading to the rise to power of Abiy Ahmed who, having begun as a reformer, is now showing the tell-tale signs of authoritarianism and harbingers of one-man rule.
Kettle Logic
