ECONOMIC GROWTH AND AUTONOMOUS MULTI-PARTY CONSENSUS DEMOCRACY IN ETHIOPIA

Asayehgn Desta, Barowsky School of Business, Dominican University of California, U.S.A.

Published in

EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF BUSINESS RESEARCH
Volume 16, Issue 1, p37-54, June 2016

ABSTRACT

The agenda of good governance, grounded on democratic principles creates on-going interaction process and solidifies governmental structures, functions and practices of the state and its people. The components of good governance include the rule of law, citizen participation, transparency, accountability, and elimination of corruption. The proponents of governance assume that it is the primary means of achieving development goals in the 21st century. Opponents on the other hand argue that when developing countries borrow or receive assistance from aid-giving agencies, they are given no choice but to follow the lead of the neo-liberal Washington Consensus Model. That is, in the name of good governance, opponents claim that the donor agencies impose their own cultural values on the recipient countries. In 1991, the inhuman and authoritarian Derg was routed from power. Despite rapid population growth and recessions during drought years, recently, Ethiopia has shown a dramatic transformation in its economy. Based on rapid public infrastructure investment as the key structural drive of growth, the World Bank indicates that Ethiopia has decreased poverty levels from 60% to 29%. Furthermore, the World Bank forecasts that Ethiopia will become a middle income country by 2025. Given that there was a surge in Ethiopia's economy and Federal Ethiopia has gradually devolved power to the lower level of administration, the question that needs to be asked is then: can Ethiopia's economic growth be attributable to the application of the principles of grassroots autonomous (self rule governance) multi-party consensus democratic political system?

Keywords

Neo-liberal economic systems, good governance, non-party polity, multi-party consensus democratic political systems, economic growth


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