Democracy is an evolutionary process
that takes time to grow. It is a process of solving political and economic
problems through peaceful dialogue and compromise. It must be nurtured and
allowed to grow like a plant or a tree. It must be adapted to a country’s
tradition and culture and draw from the experiences of other countries with
working democracies.
Institutions that support democracy
and the free market system must be encouraged to evolve. It is important to be
clear about what is meant by “institutions”. Institutions are rules of human
behavior that provide incentives under which rational people act. They are
accepted modes of behavior protected by culture. They involve laws, social
norms, traditions, beliefs and other established rules of human behavior.
Institutions provide the carrots and sticks that direct all forms of human
activity, including economic activity. Institutions and organizations are not
same, although they are sometimes used interchangeably. Organizations operate
within a set of institutions. Whether organizations and individuals can serve a
constructive or destructive purpose depends on the institutional framework in
which they operate.
The challenge of overcoming poverty
in any society is to develop institutions that support and promote economic
growth. In order to promote economic growth, institutions should provide
individuals to work hard, to save and invest, and for entrepreneurs to take
risks and to actively pursue economic opportunities, for firms to improve their
production methods, for governments to use public revenue efficiently to
provide public goods and to design cost-effective programs to meet socially
well-defined goals. Institutions that enhance human welfare are those that
channel individual and organizational efforts to productive activities by
encouraging innovation. Such institutions are best established in economies
where: property rights are well defined and secured, and laws are clearly
defined and fairly enforced.
It is in enlightened self-interest
of all stakeholders in Ethiopia, which includes the Government, the various
opposition groups, civil society organizations and individuals to work together
and allow democracy and the free enterprise system to grow by pushing forward
for a peaceful democratic political and economic reform. There is also a need
in this regard, to begin the practice of peaceful and constructive partisan
power politics. For this to occur, politicians must learn to change from a
negative sum or zero-sum to positive-sum thinking mode of thinking.
In the process of transition to a
market economy, it is important to be clear about the appropriate role of
government. Economies around the world have stagnated or declined because of
both market failure and government or policy failure or both. Areas of market
failure are those where the private sector cannot be relied upon to deliver
goods and services such as in the areas of public health, public education,
agricultural research and environmental protection. The proper role of
government includes the provision of legal and institutional structure that
support private sector and markets, as well as investments on public goods such
as roads, public education and public health services. Government also has a
legitimate role in rectifying extreme inequality of income and wealth through
progressive taxation.
Recently, Ethiopian public has come
to call out loudly about corruption and rent-seeking, or more generally, lack
of “good governance”. But as I drawn from several literatures, lack of “good
governance” is largely an outcome of inappropriate institutional pillars, in
which they would usually require a continual updating or re-installing. More
importantly, unless it is about the issue of whether the public, the ruling
party, and/or the government of an economy are awakens too early, too late, and
somewhere in between, such event is not too strange -- it usually happens in
both emerging and developed economies right after an economy has achieved some
good economic progress.
Hence such event does not necessarily
indicate an erosion of longer term potential, but it does call for urgent
corrective action. In light of this, though arguably it is lately initiated,
and its management is to be seen in the years ahead, such as the upcoming
institutional pillars or systems that the government would put in place, both
the public, the party, and the government are in a promising stage – they have
at least started to pin point the potential causes for the observed lack of
good governance through nationwide public forums.
In general, the kind of government
and society ruled solely by self-interested individuals will be a
‘rent-collecting state or predatory government or in other words a government
by thieves. Government theft’, for example, does manifest itself not only in
abusing public authority for the fulfillment of ‘individual self-interest’ but
also in undermining the spirits of non-self-interested individuals, coalitions
and officials in the name of law, free media, democracy and so on--cynicism.
While non-self-interestedness, the rule of self by the individual from
within—intrinsic control, self-interestedness is a rule by extrinsic appetites
like material temptations.
Historically, Ethiopia has a
reputation for low tolerance for corruption. However, there seems to be an
increasing trend or at least the perception of it.
Corruption and rent seeking
activities in such environment cannot really be eliminated by punishing those
that engage in corruption. Combating corruption is an institutional problem of
designing the rules of the game with transparency and accountability.
Corruption involves the illegal perversion of public assets and institutions
for private benefit. It is best prevented by the rule of law with checks and
balances, independent justice system, overseen by the free press that exposes
corruption to the public.
It is imperative to sustain higher
economic growth during the coming years and beyond in order to achieve the
vision of Ethiopia and eventually eradicate poverty and to improve people's
livelihood. Accordingly, investments on growth enhancing sectors such as
infrastructure and social sectors shall be continued.
Establishing a stable democratic and
developmental state and thereby creating a suitable environment for successive
development endeavors; Strengthening the civil service and civic societies so
as to strengthen democratic institutions; establishing a system for citizens’
access to information; Strengthening the effectiveness of the justice system in
terms of its ability to discover the truth through legal procedures; amending
laws to ensure that implementation and interpretation of the laws is done in
conformity with the constitution; Ensuring independence, transparency and
accountability of courts and the judicial system; Strengthening law enforcement
institutions by human resource, knowledge, skill and equipment; Carrying out
integrated activities to enhance the public’s understanding and awareness of
constitutional issues; and augmenting the custom and tradition of peaceful
resolution of disputes should be given special emphasis over the coming years.
The necessity of peaceful political
and economic reform follows from recent historical experiences of Ethiopia.
What is needed now may be to begin the tradition of peaceful political transition
and reform. Future political transition must be peaceful. Violent removal of
any regime is likely to produce a quagmire for the nation and citizens should
firmly reject such attempts.
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