ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the traditionalist secular elites and examines at greater length the modern-educated elite. Ethiopian behaviour at the national level is governed primarily by the culture of the Amhara, who also constitute a majority of the modern-educated population. The axes of cohesion in traditional Amhara society are for the most part vertical. They take the form of chains of relations between superiors and subordinates. Relations among status equals have been ordered either in terms of conflict or competition, or else respect, but have rarely provided a basis for solidary action or corporate consciousness. While the emergence of a stratum of modern-educated Ethiopians has been accompanied by a certain development of 'class consciousness', based on their common historic position and aspirations and their opposition to the traditionalistic elites. The existence of nascent counter-elite may be dated around 1955, the year of the Jubilee Celebration of the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Emperor's Coronation.
