The Political Economy Of Democratization And Federalizingmulti-ethnic States In Sub Saharan Africa The Post Cold Years In Reference To Ethiopia And Nigeria

In the study of International Relations, the end of cold war marked a turning point, inaugurated a newrnera, and undoubtedly disclosed the need to puff out and contend with recent set of political and economicrnpractices and developments in international relation. With significant changes that ranges from the underminingrnof state sovereignty and the Westphalian state system to the disappearance of bipolar geopolitics,rnthe end of cold war, transcending the usual core categories of the nation-state, blurred the sharprndistinction between internal and external causes of national development, and replaced it by a notion ofrninteraction within larger systems. Democratic revival and/or “wave” of democratic transition is mentionedrnat the forefront among the fascinating endings of the cold war years. This has, indisputably, consequentialrnconnotation in the “Third World” in general and sub-Saharan Africa in particular. Nevertheless,rnthe end of cold war, as well, witnessed the consolidation of global capitalist order that long beenrncontemplated as unfavorable to political and economic advancement of Africa south of the Sahara. Thernideology of ‘neo-liberalism’ with its political component of liberal democracy and its economic componentrnof free-market/enterprise became the dominant modes of thought and action within the global politicalrneconomy. Hence, sub-Saharan African states, which are characterized by the problems of politicalrninstability, economic backwardness, ethno-cultural division and political and economic inequality, staternbuilding and national consensus, and state weakness and inefficiency found themselves in internationalrnposition and under international scrutiny and the post cold war democratization has got unprecedentedrnimplication. Consequently, with the failure of centralized nation-state regimes and/or institutions, federalrnpolitical system have been viewed as an alternative to strengthen democratic transitions in ethnicallyrndivided states and thereby bring about political and economic change through power sharing and regionalrnautonomy. Thus, this thesis has endeavored to look at the interplay of the democratization andrnfederalization in multi-ethnic states of sub-Saharan Africa in a political economy approach, and the postrncold war years in a reference to Ethiopia and Nigeria in a comparative analysis. Before a resort to discussrnthe reinforcement, an attempt is made to briefly discuss and appraise the problematic of the naturernof state, and internal and external influences for democratization in the sub-continent. A comparativernanalysis of Ethiopia and Nigeria is carried out based on their federal constitutional arrangement, fiscalrnfederalism and the party system. To carry out the analysis, the 1995 Ethiopian and the 1999 Nigerian constitutions are used in supplementary with secondary sources. The analysis of the thesis found out thatrnthere is a reinforcement and interplay of democratization and federalizing ethnically divided states in sub-Saharan Africa, and a federal structuring and restructuring of institutions increases the possibilitiesrnfor state efficiency, regional autonomy of ethno-cultural groups, power decentralization and political andrneconomic equality and hence strengthens popular democracy. However, externally sub-Saharan African states are compelled to the ‘neo-liberal’ version of electoral and elitist democracy that appears inadequate to redress the inherent political and economic problems in ethnically divided and economically backward states of sub-Saharan Africa. Internally, although the federal system in both Ethiopia and Nigeria is rightly formalized in the constitution and aims at enhancing democratizing the state and pacifyingrnethnic tension , still there is a kind of power centralization at the center, which encumbered accountabilityrnof the government to the mass. The meager power of the regional states, concentration of fiscal power on the federal government, and domination of power by the ruling party at the center led to a disjuncture between a political superstructure manifested by elitist and electoral democracy and the promises of federal political system; regional autonomy, equitable resource distribution, mass empowerment and popular democracy at the base

Get Full Work

Report copyright infringement or plagiarism