Conceptualizing Democracy: Elections in the Ethiopian Countryside

Conceptualizing Democracy: Elections in the Ethiopian Countryside Eva Poluha Stockholm University Introduction In the spring of 1995, elections to die Ediiopian regional or state, as well as federal, assemblies were die last important act carried outby the country 's interim government. The Transitional Government ofEthiopia, die TGE, had been established in 1991, after the downfall of the Derg. Although headed and dominated by the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF), other ethno-political groupings were, atleast initially, part ofthe government according to an agreed charter. Even diough there has been little competition in the elections, the constitutional aspects contained in die charter have been implemented with few delays. In 1992, elections to regional assemblies were conducted and in 1994, there were elections to a constitutional assembly. The latter met in December 1994 and adopted a new constitution for An initial version of this paper was presented as a report to SIDA (Swedish International Development Authority) for whom the study was conducted. A draft version was presented at the 1995 ASA annual meeting. I want to thank the Scandinavian Institute for African Studies for having me as a guest researcher in 1995. The time there made it possible for me to ponder and analyze the election data more carefully. I also want to thank the anonymous reviewer of Northeast African Studies, Elehu Feleke, Eva Evers Rosander, and Michael Stähl for critical and incisive comments on various versions of the paper. ^Northeast African Studies (ISSN 0740-9133) Vol. 4, No. 1 (New Series) 1997, pp. 39-70 39 40 EvaPoluha which die May 1995 elections were die next logical step. The transitional process has, in other words, closely adhered to die timetable in the charter. The elections have been strongly supported by most Western governments . The Western ideal of equal representation and of a government of and by the people has, in many dealings between Western donor institutions and African governments, been interpreted as an agenda for multiparty elections. Consequendy, die Etiiiopian elections during the transitionalperiod havebeen seen as a step in the right direction and have been given bodi moral and economic assistance by die West. The present study attempts to use the May elections as a methodological means to gain more intimate knowledge about die present relationship between peasants and die state in Ethiopia. It is hoped fliat a focus on the elections, the rhetoric surrounding diem, the acts and comments of members of the state in implementing them, and of die peasantry participating in them, will promote a broader understanding of die perceptions that state officials and peasants have ofeach other. In a wider sense, this should also tell us sometiiing about their respective ideas of democracy , since the descriptions they give of each other also inform us of the roles fliat each, often implicidy, attributes to itself as well as to the other party in die governing of the country. To talk of peasants and state officials as two distinct categories means homogenizing entities that, in fact, in themselves are very heterogeneous. StUl, in a context where democracy is discussed it is necessary to take a closer look at die division of power between the people, tiieir representatives , and the state and its different organs. Furthermore, in the eyes of the Ethiopian peasant, all state officials are equal to "the government." From their perspective it is difficult to distinguish between different categories of officials that, somehow, rather appear to merge together, as rulers. Thus, despite tiieir obvious internal differences, I have here taken the liberty ofpresenting and analyzing peasants and state officials as two distinct categories of actors. The study was initiated in February 1995 and covered three visits to Ethiopia, each of two to three weeks' duration, including die election day. One Peasant Association (PA) in Region tiiree, the Amhara Region, one PA in Region four, the Oromo Region and one PA in Region seven, the SouthernRegionwere selected as study areas. Each represented a different Conceptualizing Democracy 41 language group. I myselfhad more tiian 15 years of contact with one of die PAs while each of my research assistants had even longer experience in the respective PAs. The long-term contact was necessary for the...