Extra-Constitutional Factors and the Success of Federal Arrangements: Ethiopia in Comparative Perspective

TY - UNPB

T1 - Extra-Constitutional Factors and the Success of Federal Arrangements: Ethiopia in Comparative Perspective

AU - Rohrbach, Livia

PY - 2019/9

Y1 - 2019/9

N2 - What determines the success of federal arrangements? Federal arrangements are often introduced in contexts that lack multi-party democracy and instead are characterized by centralisation and limited competition in the context of a dominant party system. This uneasy combination of regional autonomy on the one hand and centralisation on the other alters federal dynamics significantly, most visibly in different modes of access to political power, procedures of political representation and consultation, and rules underlying political decision-making. The Ethiopian federal system serves as an empirical illustration for how intra-party politics takes precedence over federal institutions, resulting in a system that provides relative stability, however is not genuinely federal in nature. The findings underline the importance of expanding research on the origins and effects of federal arrangements on extra-constitutional factors – therefore, this article provides an indicative list of contextual and structural factors with comparative relevance for the study of federal arrangements.

AB - What determines the success of federal arrangements? Federal arrangements are often introduced in contexts that lack multi-party democracy and instead are characterized by centralisation and limited competition in the context of a dominant party system. This uneasy combination of regional autonomy on the one hand and centralisation on the other alters federal dynamics significantly, most visibly in different modes of access to political power, procedures of political representation and consultation, and rules underlying political decision-making. The Ethiopian federal system serves as an empirical illustration for how intra-party politics takes precedence over federal institutions, resulting in a system that provides relative stability, however is not genuinely federal in nature. The findings underline the importance of expanding research on the origins and effects of federal arrangements on extra-constitutional factors – therefore, this article provides an indicative list of contextual and structural factors with comparative relevance for the study of federal arrangements.

M3 - Working paper

BT - Extra-Constitutional Factors and the Success of Federal Arrangements: Ethiopia in Comparative Perspective

ER -