ABSTRACT
More than twenty years after the change of power in Ethiopia it is apposite to critically evaluate the impact of EPRDF’s revolutionary democracy and ethnic federalism, and to survey a few milestones and problems of its 20-year’s effort to restructure and develop the country. This undertaking is visible in a rapidly expanding literature on Ethiopia, with many political science and sociological studies now available.2 But in this book we intend to elaborate a few recurring themes prevalent in the scholarly discussions to date. We do this in a series of case studies on Ethiopia’s federal governance, politics, social, religious and ethnic relations, and international positioning. They are mostly based on empirical research in the country done by the contributors over the past years. The emphasis is necessarily selective, and concentrates on the most signifi cant political developments, state practices and institutional changes that have shaped political life and society in post-1991 Ethiopia.
