Federalism: the bond among Ethiopian Nations, Nationalities!

Gemechu Tussa

Almost twenty five years passed since Ethiopia formed a Federal Government. In these years, the nations, nationalities and peoples of Ethiopia have faced some challenges and enjoyed fruits. The purpose of this article is, therefore, to assess whether Federalism has resulted in a negative or affirmative impacts in Ethiopia.  

Many people misunderstood the concept of Federalism and usually considered it as instrument designed to disintegrate the unity of a certain country. However, the reality differs from this argument. In its true essence, Federalism is a system of government in which a written Constitution divides power between a central government and regional governments.

Both types of government: Regional and Federal are supreme within their proper sphere of authority. There are a number of countries in the world that have been enjoying federalism governance systems. The United States and Canada are the two typical exampels for Federal System.

Available sources indicated that Federalism in America has the virtue of retaining local pride, traditions and power, while allowing a central government that can handle common problems. The basic principle of American federalism is fixed in the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution which states that each state has its own position of legal autonomy and political significance. Though a state is not a sovereign body, it does exercise power and can carry out functions that would be carried out by the central authority in other governmental set-ups.

According to the American Constitution, the federal unit mainly is mainly engaged in defense, foreign affairs, control of the currency and the control of commerce between the states. The federal government has functions that have been greatly extended and touch on nearly all aspects of life for American citizens. The state continued to be very important political centers of government activity.

The states have important regulatory functions, laying down many of the rules that businesses and trade unions must observe. States have extensive powers of taxation and combined with local governments within each state spend huge sums of money on social welfare, education, health and hospitals.

In Canada, the powers of the government are divided between the ten individual provincial governments and the federal parliament.

Federalism means having democratically accountable political institutions to deal with issues at the most appropriate level, according to the principle of subsidiary. Thus local decisions should be taken at local level, national decisions at national level.

It is well known that Ethiopia has diverse cultures, languages and religions. It has more than 80 nations, nationalities and people that were deprived of their rights in the previous regimes.  In the last twenty five years, the some of the Ethiopian Diaspora have been polarized with a few groups who are working hard to destabilize and bring back the past military regime.

However, we Ethiopians at home could witness how we have been benefiting from the Federal System of the country. Nowadays all nations, nationalities and peoples of Ethiopia have been administering their respective regions.  They plan to develop their culture, language and their region using the budget allotted to them from the Federal Government.

As a result, the overall development of the country has been showing an upward trajectory since the past two decades. Available documents indicated that the country has become one of the three leading economic countries in the world.

A few groups have continuing criticizing the Ethiopian Federal System as if it negates the unitary system. However, all nations and nationalities got relief from the system that has deprived their rights of development.

In the first place, the multi-party system in the country allowed nations, nationalities and peoples of Ethiopia to have their respective political party working to develop their respective regions and enhance the betterment of their lives. The Ethiopian Federal System, in its past two decades’ journey, witnessed that it helped for appropriate budgetary system and faire development distribution throughout the country.

In the second place, the Ethiopian Federal System ensured all nations and nationalities self-rule and shared-rule in a peaceful and democratic manner. All the Regions in the country are now administered by their own people. It is quite clear that institutions like political parties, civil society organizations and independent press positively contribute to peaceful management of ethnic conflicts by creating crosscutting partnerships that surpass mere ethnic cleavages.

In the third place, Federalism has been successful in Ethiopia as there is a good tradition of rule of law. In fact, there might be some challenges and gaps between constitutional principles and practices. As infant democracy, Ethiopia faced various ups and downs that challenged the smooth move of the Federal System from within and outside but it managed to withstand it.

It is quite clear that the reactions of multi-ethnic states to ethnic diversity and ethnic conflicts have always been variable. There is currently a growing international trend to use autonomy and federal arrangements as a way of managing ethnic conflicts. The interface between ethno nationalist conflicts and federalism lies in the capacity of the latter to provide a balance between self-rule and shared-rule.

Learning to live with conflicts in transforming conflicts, federalism simply makes us prepare for an important lesson: that a mature polity learns to live with conflicts rather than trying to resolve them mostly by wishing them away.

The nations, nationalities and peoples’ of Ethiopia passed so many challenges that violated their rights.  Historical documents indicated that Emperor Haile Selassie attempted to create a unitary state on the basis of cultural assimilation.

The military rile also attempted to retain a unitary state and failed to properly address the question of nations and nationalities. It rather created 24 administrative regions and 5 autonomous regions within the unitary form of state, but no devolution of authority was discernible.

What differs the current Ethiopian Federalism from those previously attempted ones and other countries is the bone of contention of this piece.  The government of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia maintains the Ethiopian state on the basis of ethnic federalism as well as cultural, language and political autonomy at regional and sub-regional levels.

According to the preamble of the transitional charter, "self-determination of all the peoples shall be one of the governing principles of political, economic and social life". It underlined the need to end all hostilities, heal ethnic wounds and create peace and stability. The transitional charter affirmed the rights of ethnic groups to self-determination up to secession and provided for the establishment of local and regional governments on the basis of nationality.

Ethiopia's ethnic federalism is a federalism based on ethnic communities as the constituent units and foundations of the federal state. The two important components of Ethiopia's ethnic federalism are language pluralism, and regional autonomy. Language pluralism is important because it was one of the factors that created profound alienation for ethnic groups but now is one indicator of pluralism in multi-ethnic societies. It is known that there are over 80 languages in the country.

Ethnic federalism has created conditions conducive to ethnic and regional autonomy in language and culture and in administrative, fiscal, judicial and police decentralization. Ethnic groups in the country are willing to live within the framework of the federal system as an important achievement of ethnic federalism.

Under the present federal system, states are granted the status of a nation. They are given self-determination up to secession.  They have their respective autonomous governments each including a State Council and a State Administration.

The State Council is the highest political authority: it defines the region's policy and has all legislative, executive and judiciary powers regarding the region, except for those under the responsibility of the central government, such as defense, foreign affairs, economic policy, etc. The State plans, approves, heads and controls economic and social development programs. It drafts, approves and manages the regional budget. The State Administration is the highest executive authority of regional government. It is elected by the State Council. The State Administration enforces as appropriate the policies, proclamations, regulations, plans, guidelines and decisions of the central government and of the State Council. It manages co-ordinates and supervises the activities of regional offices, zonal administration offices and district offices.

The Ethiopian multi-ethnic federalism system has brought about a number of benefits and advantages to the country's nations, nationalities and peoples. Under the present ethnic federal system, Ethiopia achieved strong unity through diversity. The federal system also paved the way for a peaceful and harmonized co-existence of the various nations, nationalities and peoples of Ethiopia.

The Ethiopian Federalism has also played a pivotal role in Ethiopia's economic success by empowering every citizen and every community to contribute to the nation's development and to benefit from it in a fair and equitable manner that initiated the people to join hands in rebuilding the nation.

Moreover, it not only contributed a lot to realize peace and stability in the country but also allowed it to introduce a democratic system of governance that is fast maturing and consolidating enabling all the peoples of Ethiopia to maintain and celebrate their individual identities.

It empowered all nations, nationalities and peoples of Ethiopia to manage their local affairs autonomously and to mobilize all their resources to improve their livelihoods and develop their communities while at the same time becoming active participant in common national affairs.

It satisfies the will of the people of Ethiopia more accurately than any other system of governance. In fact, Ethiopia is still open to draw valuable lessons on federalism from experienced countries.  

Ethiopia envisioned alleviating poverty and ensuring sustainable economic growth through the principle of equality and unity in diversity. The Federal System gives full recognition to ethnic autonomy, while maintaining the unity of the state.

Previously marginalized communities are now enjoying self-governance and control their own resources and have better access to public services. There is immense economic interdependence among the states and the federal state. Relations between the federal government and regional governments and among regional governments have been smooth. In brief, the Ethiopian ethnic federalism system has served as a firm ground for the unity of the peoples of Ethiopia through diversity.