The Ethiopian Revolutionary State

Abstract

This chapter explores how the twin forces of post-war globalization and the imperatives of modernization changed the terms of power play between Ethiopian state elites and non-state actors to produce radical institutional changes. The Revolutionary State (RS) upstaged the old order but failed in many important respects to devise enduring institution that resonate with societal norms and changing needs. One consequence of the changes in the material basis of the state is the hyper-centralization of the state and the other is the institutionalization of a mixed bag of inclusion and exclusion, both of which undermined many laudable gains in the project of nation-state building during 1855–1974 in exchange for largely symbolic victories.