Ethiopia's 'Developmental State'

Ethiopia stands out as a leading example of state-led development in Africa. Tom Lavers offers in this book a comprehensive multi-sector analysis of Ethiopia's development project examining how regimes maintain power during the extended periods required to bring about economic transformation. Specifically Lavers explores how the Ethiopian Peoples' Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF 1991-2019) sought to maintain political order through economic transformation and why the party collapsed leading to the outbreak of civil war in 2020. The book argues that the EPRDF sought to secure mass acquiescence through distribution of land and employment. However rapid population growth and the limits of industrial policy in the contemporary global economy led to a distributive crisis that was a central factor in the regime's collapse. This Ethiopian experience raises important questions about the prospects for economic transformation elsewhere on the continent. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core at doi.org/9781009428316.