Federalism as Fairness in Ethiopia

Abstract In this contribution I apply the normative political theory of multinational federalism to the case of Ethiopia. Can the political philosophy of multinational federalism ground Ethiopian federalism, and does Ethiopia satisfy its moral demands? To do so, I examine the Ethiopian federal system from the perspective of four desiderata of multinational federalism: (1) national-cultural self-government, (2) solidarity, (3) central government, and (4) linguistic justice. While Ethiopia’s federal structure has scored well with respect to (1) national-cultural self-government and (2) solidarity, it does face problems of (3) federal togetherness and (4) recognition of internal linguistic minorities. In the article several ways to overcome the two last-mentioned problems are suggested, although the article places these problems in perspective, as they trouble many multinational federal states.