ABSTRACT
To come to terms with any setbacks in contemporary Ethiopia’s attempts at democracy or why its successive authoritarian regimes survived longer than they perhaps should have under challenging circumstances, look no further than the country’s modern and contemporary history. Interpreting and/or explaining recent challenges by relying on a careful analysis of Ethiopia’s past is one way to fill some of the bigger voids. Thus, by looking into historical periods in Ethiopia’s pre-1974 political eras and examining the political culture that defined elite interaction across these political periods, this chapter presents the foundational work for successful attempts to study Ethiopian politics. Accordingly, it contributes with its analysis of debates on past successes as well as failures; and presents similarities and peculiarities across the legacies of the regimes discussed.
