comparative assessment of decentralization in africa: ethiopia desk ...

2.0 INTERMEDIATEOBJECTIVESIn this section, we examine the four intermediate objectives of interest to the United StatesAgency for International Development (USAID) in democratic decentralization. We find thatauthority is rather clearly established and secure in Ethiopia for SNG, though some levels ofSNG are more robust than others. The degree to which decentralization has met the objectives ofautonomy and accountability is more ambiguous, while capacity seems to be a factor thatseriously constrains implementation.2.1 AUTHORITYEthiopian decentralization has gone farther in advancing subnational authority than in attainingthe other three intermediate objectives of interest to USAID. The legal framework fordecentralization is relatively clearly established in the Constitution of 1995 (and indeed wasestablished in the transition prior to the passage of the Constitution). There are five major layersof government, as seen in Figure 2 in Appendix 3. These are the federal government, regionalstates, zones, woredas, and kebeles. We treat the structure and authority of each of these in order.2.1.1 LEVELS OF GOVERNMENTEthiopia’s decentralization since the 1990s has taken place in two waves: the 1990sdecentralization from the center to the regional states and the early 2000s woredadecentralization that devolved power to the district level. The regional decentralization of the1990s featured stability and ethnic federalism as the central issues, while the woredadecentralization was directed more at the goals of development and democracy (along with apolitical economy calculus on the part of the center). In this section, we elaborate upon themultiple layers of government that currently exist in Ethiopia as a consequence of the two majordecentralization processes.Federal government (based in Addis Ababa)As noted above, several of the key structures of Ethiopia’s federal government are predicatedon the notion of ethnic federalism. The national-level institutions of particular importance fordecentralization are the structure of the legislative-executive relations (including electoralrules for legislators) and the structure of the political party system. On legislative-executiverelations, Ethiopia’s legislature is uncommon in Africa because it is parliamentary, with thePrime Minister (currently Meles Zenawi of the EPRDF) serving as the head of governmentand a ceremonial president selected as head of state. Parliament is bicameral, with a House ofPeoples’ Representatives (lower chamber) elected in single-seat constituencies from districtsand the House of Federation (upper chamber) selected by the legislatures of the regionalstates. This arrangement gives a territorial basis for representation in both chambers. In both,ETHIOPIA DESK STUDY 7