African Journal of
Political Science and International Relations

  • Abbreviation: Afr. J. Pol. Sci. Int. Relat.
  • Language: English
  • ISSN: 1996-0832
  • DOI: 10.5897/AJPSIR
  • Start Year: 2007
  • Published Articles: 403

Article in Press

Consolidating Achievements and Making Smooth Transition to Democracy in Ethiopia: A Beginning from Dead End

Kena Deme Jebessa

  •  Received: 28 November 2018
  •  Accepted: 22 January 2019
Ethiopia has been experiencing extreme and repeated mass protests, uprising and society-government relationship crisis over the past two to three decades. The absolute dominance of a single vanguard party, EPRDF as well as the absence of fair representation of Ethiopian nations, nationalities and peoples at federal institutions resulted power dominance by single ethnic group, deterioration of institutions and political opposition. After many sacrificed their lives, new chapter is opened that new leadership come to the position of prime minister as a measure of how the EPRDF tried to convince Ethiopians that it is renewing itself. The new leadership started taking reforms. The reforms introduced by the new leadership were unthinkable not so long ago. However, as reforms started, different challenges are obstructing it. In order to study this, qualitative research approach that used both primary and secondary data sources is employed. The finding of this study shows that the current Ethiopian condition requires going forward and strongly firm on securing rule of law and justice. Therefore, this article puts a scenario that may help to stop, if not to reduce the gap and consolidate achievements of the reform and make smooth transition to democracy and genuine federal system. Finally, a part from mechanisms forwarded by this short article, if Ethiopia is going to be surviving as a state in the future, it highly demands encouraging the existing reform through institutionalizing hand in hand with democratic federalism, if not it is impossible to bring national unity and stability by obstructing the reform and it will even facilitate the disintegration of Ethiopia.

Keywords: Protest, Reform, Ethiopia, Transition to Democracy, Revolution in Ethiopia