Occasional Paper Series Number 28 Emergence and Transformation of Territorially Based Cleavages and Constitutional Responses in Ethiopia Assefa Fiseha Emergence and Transformation of Territorially Based Cleavages and Constitutional Responses in Ethiopia Assefa Fiseha © Forum of Federations, 2019 ISSN: 1922-558X (online ISSN 1922-5598) Occasional Paper Series Number 28 Emergence and Transformation of Territorially Based Cleavages and Constitutional Responses in Ethiopia By Assefa Fiseha For more information about the Forum of Federations and its publications, please visit our website: www.forumfed.org. Forum of Federations 75 Albert Street, Suite 411 Ottawa, Ontario (Canada) K1P 5E7 Tel: (613) 244-3360 Fax: (613) 244-3372
[email protected] 3 Emergence and Transformation of Territorially Based Cleavages and Constitutional Responses in Ethiopia Overview On March 13, 2014 Time published an article entitled ‘Forget the BRICS and meet PINES’, which reported on Ethiopia’s socio-economic progress. In the last decade, Ethiopia has shown a continuous 10 -11% annual economic growth, including improved access to education, health facilities and the massive expansion of road, rail and telecommunications infrastructure. Several hydroelectric dams are boosting its economy and it plans to be the energy giant of the Horn region, exporting electricity to neighbouring countries. This chapter tells the story of Ethiopia’s remarkable political transformation, which has underlay these successes but has important weaknesses as well. Ethiopia has enormous diversity and a long history of independence. However, the modern Ethiopian state emerged towards the end of the 19th century after Emperor Menlik II (1889-1913) incorporated under his control previously quasi-autonomous kingdoms in the South, the Southwest and the East.