Democracy, Republic and Multiparty Politics in Ethiopia RL Vol XII No 307 MMXVIII

Interview with Herald

Democracy, Republic and Multiparty Politics in Ethiopia

Interview - RL Vol XII No 307 MMXVIII

Costantinos Berhutesfa Costantinos, PhD

Chief Scout, Ethiopian Scouts & President, Lem Ethiopia: Environment and Development Society

https://addisababa.academia.edu/CostyCostantinos

Summary

            Globally, democracy is in retreat, so assert influential voices in the West. With the rise of populism and hate politics in relation to immigration, religion and colour. Three types of threat to democracy: coups, catastrophes and technological takeovers. While coups will become less common, other forms of “coups” will constrain elected governments even while they remain formally in power. Further, looming threats to civilisation, (environmental crises and nuclear warfare) could make democracy seem like an unaffordable luxury. Social media we have become dependent on is an arena that we neither control nor fully understand. Nevertheless, while influential voices contend that democracy is in decline worldwide, the global proportion of democracies is actually at or near an all-time high. Republican democracy is the active participation of politically conscious citizens with the requisite understanding of the meaning of democracy, as citizens of a political society in a polity endowed with political rules and institutions. It is a system for choosing and replacing the government through free and fair elections and one that protects the human rights of all citizens and a rule of law, in which the laws and procedures apply equally to all citizens. Democracy creates losers as well as winners. When the losers are powerful enough to undermine democracy, this is why the fate of many democracies has been precarious.

        Today, while PM Abiy inherits a spectacular economic and infrastructure growth, hundreds of thousands graduating yearly from hundreds of vocational schools, universities, a ten-years increase in life expectancy in a decade and meeting the MDGs. Nevertheless, because of the frustrated populace he has now emerged to transform the security situation which predicated a martial law to silence it, after his historic speech focused on Ethiopianness and the need to act together as citizens of a single political society. The remaining agenda is to fix the economic and social governance and the livelihood of Ethiopia’s youth. I see unquestionable genuineness in PM Abiy’s moves to widen the political space and to make his ruling party a competitive political organ that can win the spoils of power using political participation and political competition. Whatever his party chooses as a strategy remains to be seen, but Abiy has given another life to a party that had transformed the economic infrastructure and education of the youth of Ethiopia; but, had at the same time, lost the confidence of the same youth it had meticulously enlightened to question its governance strategies. 

See interview here or https://www.academia.edu/37481100/Interview_with_Herald_Democracy_Republic_and_Multiparty_Politics_in_Ethiopia