Sisay, Senait (2016) Policy Making in Ethiopia: Does Federalism Matter? Masters thesis, Addis Ababa University.
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Abstract
In federations powers of government are divided between the center and the constituent units. One of the areas of government where both tiers of government have keen interest is in areas of socio-economic policy-making for it serves as a tool for constructing national identity. Here in Ethiopia policy-making power in socio-economic areas are divided between the two levels of government under the constitution. Owing to the nature of power division on the constitution and also the federal practice, there is increasing tendency of centralization of the area by the federal government. This study ventured to see if federal principles mattered in the making of federal and regional policies as well as planes in the above mentioned socio-economic areas. In federations ensuring the participation of the constituent units in socio-economic decisions seems to take two phases; participation at the central decision-making organs on shared concerns and secondly autonomy in exercising powers allocated to them in the area. In Ethiopia the institutional mechanisms’ of ensuring participation of the regional units in federal policy-making are weak weighted against the requirements set in literatures on federalism as well as experiences of other existing federations. This seems to be one of the major loopholes of the Ethiopian federation as it negates the very purpose of rearranging the nation as federal. The actual practice of the policy process has also, owing to the workings of the various para constitutional variables discussed in the paper, resulted in an overtly centralized policy-process. In relation to this it is observed that the relative strengths or weaknesses of the organization /composition/ and powers of the legislature in the context of federalism seem to have a ripple effect on the overall health of a federal nation. The inefficient power and limited representation the sub units posses in the federal legislature results in center’s dominance in all aspects of relations between centre and states including the sectoral policy making. The opposite also holds true, i.e., the efficient and full scale power and representation of the states in the federal legislature amounts to a relatively balanced and decentralized federal governance and policy process.
| Item Type: | Thesis (Masters) |
|---|---|
| Subjects: | J Political Science > JA Political science (General) |
| Divisions: | Africana |
| Depositing User: | Kabiru Wallace Ndung'u |
| Date Deposited: | 03 Jul 2019 12:02 |
| Last Modified: | 03 Jul 2019 12:02 |
| URI: | http://thesisbank.jhia.ac.ke/id/eprint/9342 |
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