Ethiopia since the Derg: A decade of democratic pretension and performance

The Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) came to power after defeating the hated military dictatorship of Mangistu's Derg a decade ago. This book is the result of an intensive monitoring over the intervening years, in various parts of Ethiopia, of the growing gap between the new regime's much-vaunted democratic intentions and the very different outcome. It focuses in particular on the elections held in 2000 and 2001, but also provided a more wide-ranging presentation of issues and context. The contributors examine various aspects, including gender dimensions, urban and rural contrasts, class and caste conflict, environmental factors and political violence. The book contains much original empirical information and provides a balanced overall assessment of the new regime, after decade in power, so far as its political pretensions are concerned. While making clear the specific ways in which the EPRDF is a great improvement on the Derg, the authors are critical of how the new regime has fallen short of the democratic hopes which it originally raised. They explain why it seems unable to accept any indication of a faltering in its rural support or loss of political control even in a small number of localities. They conclude that only when the regime recognizes its shortcomings will it reach out to other political movements within the country and in exile, and so create the political groundwork for a fresh and substantive democratization of the country's political system. This up-to-date study of one Africa's largest and most interesting countries is a significant contribution to the growing literature on the politics of democratic transition in the post-Cold War world.