Faculty of Law, University of Goettingen, Germany. E-mail: semahagn@gmail.com
Journal of African Studies and Development
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This article aims to analyse the major challenges of adopting ethnic federal system in Africa with special focus on the context of Ethiopia’s ethnic federal system. It is argued that though the adoption of ethnic federal system in Ethiopia has created the opportunity for minority groups to exercise their cultural and linguistic rights, the ethnic federal experiment has faced enormous challenges. The challenges include problems of legitimacy, unprecedented emphasis on ethnicity and lack of genuine democratization process. The article argues for concrete measures to be undertaken on political accommodation of various political groupings, realization of genuine democracy and establishing efficient political institutions as well as the need to accommodate minority rights in a manner that fosters social cohesion and national unity in the country.
NTRODUCTION
The post-Second World War international development in human rights has been largely based on the assumption of a nation-state which is understood to refer to the convergence of the territory of a state with a nation, whose members are united by ties of history and culture and commitment to a common future (Ghai and Cottrell, 2008). The principal basis of rights and obligations in a nation-state is citizenship based on equality before the law and enjoying the same rights. The sovereignty of the people is expressed through the state, which provides a common regime of laws, the machinery for justice, democratic rights of franchise and candidacy in elections, and the protection of other rights of individuals (Ghai and Cottrell, 2008). In such systems, a citizen’s linguistic, religious, and cultural affiliations are largely ignored or undermined. In fact, there has been considerable consensus among many Marxist and non-Marxist scholars that ethnicity is reflection of isolation of communities and lack of efficient communications and blame ethno-cultural conflicts on temporary factors that would disappear through time (Karmis and Norman, 2005; Kymilcka and Opalski, 2001). It has been expected that industrialization, urbanization and the spread of modern education would reduce ethnic tendencies in the process. Marxists were also certain that socialism would mean the end of the ethnic tension and consciousness that existed in pre-socialist societies (Spiro, 2007). Assimilation of minorities into a large integrated whole was viewed as the inevitable future (Jalali and Lipset, 1992). Read more…
This article aims to analyse the major challenges of adopting ethnic federal system in Africa with special focus on the context of Ethiopia’s ethnic federal system. It is argued that though the adoption of ethnic federal system in Ethiopia has created the opportunity for minority groups to exercise their cultural and linguistic rights, the ethnic federal experiment has faced enormous challenges. The challenges include problems of legitimacy, unprecedented emphasis on ethnicity and lack of genuine democratization process. The article argues for concrete measures to be undertaken on political accommodation of various political groupings, realization of genuine democracy and establishing efficient political institutions as well as the need to accommodate minority rights in a manner that fosters social cohesion and national unity in the country.
NTRODUCTION
The post-Second World War international development in human rights has been largely based on the assumption of a nation-state which is understood to refer to the convergence of the territory of a state with a nation, whose members are united by ties of history and culture and commitment to a common future (Ghai and Cottrell, 2008). The principal basis of rights and obligations in a nation-state is citizenship based on equality before the law and enjoying the same rights. The sovereignty of the people is expressed through the state, which provides a common regime of laws, the machinery for justice, democratic rights of franchise and candidacy in elections, and the protection of other rights of individuals (Ghai and Cottrell, 2008). In such systems, a citizen’s linguistic, religious, and cultural affiliations are largely ignored or undermined. In fact, there has been considerable consensus among many Marxist and non-Marxist scholars that ethnicity is reflection of isolation of communities and lack of efficient communications and blame ethno-cultural conflicts on temporary factors that would disappear through time (Karmis and Norman, 2005; Kymilcka and Opalski, 2001). It has been expected that industrialization, urbanization and the spread of modern education would reduce ethnic tendencies in the process. Marxists were also certain that socialism would mean the end of the ethnic tension and consciousness that existed in pre-socialist societies (Spiro, 2007). Assimilation of minorities into a large integrated whole was viewed as the inevitable future (Jalali and Lipset, 1992). Read more…
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