Institutional Decay and Elite Predation: The Structural Drivers of Ethiopia's Ongoing Political and Administrative Crisis
Domain:
peace and securityRecord type:
paper
Creator:
Men
Publisher:
Host:
This manuscript investigates the compounding mechanisms of institutional decay and elite predation driving contemporary Ethiopia's political turmoil and administrative crisis. Moving beyond reductionist narratives of primordial ethnic hatred, this study contends that the current crisis is the structural outcome of historical pathdependencies, flawed ethno-federal designs, and rent-seeking networks that survived successive regime transitions. By examining the post-2018 political transition, the paper explores how the centralization maneuvers of the Prosperity Party, coupled with sub-national elite mobilization, have hollowed out formal bureaucratic accountability. Drawing upon qualitative political economy analysis and foundational literature references, the paper demonstrates that systemic corruption is not merely an administrative failure, but a core governance crisis rooted in state capture.
Similar
A Narrative of Institutional Decay in Mali's Education System A Qualitative Case Study of Systemic Corruption and Administrative DeficienciesExploring political and socio-economic drivers of transformational climate policy: Early insights form the design of Ethiopia's Climate Resilient Green Economy strategyThe Political Economy of Institutional Corruption in Africa: The Case of the 1996–97 Tanzania Coffee CrisisPolitical Economy of Education: Assessing Institutional and Structural Constraints to Quality and Access to Education Opportunities in TanzaniaBeyond Hype and Hardware: The Structural Determinants of EdTech Sustainability in Ethiopia's Quest for SDG 4The Political Economy of Bad Data: Evidence from African Survey and Administrative Statistics