Federalism and, Rule of Law Instrumental in Prevailing Peace, Good Governance

LelisaGirma

Federalism is a form of government that allows more than one central entity to have power and share resources with other regional states in a decentralized but harmonized manner. Hence, there is a federal government who the consensual result of all entities and smaller, more localized forms of governments that take control of local and regional issues. The idea behind this is to be able to better suit the needs of each nation, nationality and locality of the country.

Viewed from the experience of the world, majority of democracies have a unitary system of government, wherein power is centralized around the national government. In federalism, however, there is a constitution which formulates this power sharing arrangement between the state and its units. These units, referred to as the provincial or regional states, have the power to act independently in certain areas of the country.

For instance, in Canada where democracy and the experience of federalism is said to have taken root by harmonizing the needs of different nationalities, power is shared between national and regional state governments. The local governments have exclusive powers to issue licenses, provide for public health, conduct elections and form local governments, look after the intrastate trade, etc. This political system was adopted to ensure greater safety and autonomy against internal and external threats. 

The other advantage of federalism is that final decisions are dispersed among local governments representing specific and sometimes overlapping geographical areas. These governmental units have, as constituents, people of different social, political, moral and economic persuasions.

According to James Madison, the smaller the unit of government, the easier it would be for a single interest to dominate it. However, these units in a large republic would be so many that they would actually provide more opportunities for relevant issues to be recognized and heard. The system of federal government has, therefore, resulted in a disparity in equality and participation.

But these differences are results of participation in the decision-making process, albeit for conflicting and opposite results.

In the case of Ethiopia, endorsed and coming in to effect almost 21 years ago this month, the country has become the owner of sun shine Constitution that enshrines federal system of administration as its core principle. It has proclaimed to establish a federal democratic system whereby the nations, nationalities and peoples have come together. Willingly, they could exercise their right to self-determination, build political community founded on  rule of law and capable to ensure lasting peace, guarantee democratic order and advance their economic and social development.

In addition, the Constitution has become a bed-rock up on which the current federal system of administration is built. Self-administration, decentralization and identity are given pronounced role as a fundamental essence of federal state arrangement; the Constitution provides a road map by which the nations, nationalities and peoples of the country, whom it considers the ultimate bearer of sovereign power, can fully exercise their rights.

Owing to its state structure, as a federal state construct, various states are established as members of the federation. The Constitution stipulates the process through which the states are delimited including language, identity, settlement patterns and consent of people. The Constitution also outlines that the House of Federation has the sole power to interpret the Constitution and to bring peaceful resolution in cases where there are border and resource-related disputes between neighboring regional states.

In order to resolve conflicting claims over representation, territory and resource, the Constitution has created a kind of an upper chamber called the House of Federation whose members are elected by State Councils. For instance, this mandate of the House of Federation was exercised in settling the disputes of four woredas bordering Oromia and Somali states about decades ago ( the woredas in question are inhabited by various nations and nationalities, each state claimed its jurisdiction over the territories.

The dispute was resolved after the House of Federation intervened and conducted a referendum where the population in the areas voted as to which regional state they would prefer to be part of).It is so vivid that the decision of the House of Federation brought about a peaceful conclusion to the issue of territorial dispute and no one was seen rattling his saber or totting his gun.

The Constitution devolves much power to the regional states and they are granted the status of a nation. They are given self-determination up to secession. Self-determination is broadly understood to mean as the use and development of one's language, culture, history and administrative structure. The right to self-administration and determination also includes proportional representation at federal organs as is stipulated in Article 39(3) of the constitution.

At the broadest level, the general principle underlying the allocation of authority and legislative responsibility in federal systems has been that matters of common interest and concern to the country as a whole.

In the contrary, some people feared that federalism would disintegrate the country. But the reality was opposite of the fore mentioned expectation. The country survived in peace, security and huge economic development after the federal system was applied. In the contrary, the country has been growing very fast and registered double-digit economic growth consecutively for over ten years (this did not ever happened when Ethiopia was governed by unitary state system).

This question tells us that federalism is the best system to sustain the unity of the country, register dazzling economic development and realize desirable good governance. As a witness, all changes and the whole development have been achieved because of people enjoying freedom (as far as the right to self-determination).

Some people also claim that giving much power to the locally elected officials, self-government, and diversity of interests can make the federal system susceptible to manipulation by narrow local interests. Legislation may also be diluted by compromise at the expense of national or regional interests.

However, this claim could be mere suspicion as the federal system has its own mechanism to control abuse of balance through check and balance and separation of powers. Similarly, responsibility, transparency and participation of people are the ones to prevent abuse of power and rectify good governance in a desirable manner.

Contrary to the fruits of development and the success being registered by the application of federal system of administration, some aggressive, subversive and extremist individuals tried to hijack the questions of good governance being forwarded by the people.

Nation is stating that federalism is and has been witnessed as instrumental in prevailing peace and good governance. No matter how worse the motive of vandals and desperado groups is, the government has acted in a responsible and accountable manner to the demand of citizens. Moreover, the government is declaring that the problem of corruption and good governance is palpable and nation could solve it with the collaboration of people and the government.

The government is stressing on the fact that good governance problem could be solved with the participation of people and organization of forums that could serve as a venue to join people and the government. To this end, so far, the government has been organizing same forums used to glean invaluable ideas of the greater public and implement good governance activities. As far as possible, the government has been reaffirming that federalism and rule of law are ingenious mechanisms to uproot rent-seeking political economy, eradicate corruptors, prevail peace and good governance and realize the renaissance of the country.