Ethiopia’s ‘Developmental State’
Political Order and Distributive Crisis

Analyses the political economy of Ethiopian development to understand the role of authoritarian state-led policies in a global economy.

Tom Lavers (Author)

9781009428293, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 5 October 2023

376 pages
23.5 x 15.8 x 2.5 cm, 0.69 kg

'This is a rich, fascinating, and important book, essential for understanding contemporary Ethiopia's state formation and development challenges within the wider context of both domestic and global transformations.' Davide Chinigo, The Journal of Development Studies

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.

1. Ethiopia and the challenge of late-late development
2. Structural transformation, late-late development and political order
3. Ethiopian state formation and the revolutionary origins of EPRDF dominance
4. Distributive threats, elite cohesion and the emergence of the 'developmental state'
5. Land tenure and changing responses to the agrarian question
6. Industrial policy and the challenge of mass employment creation
7. Urban development and the politics of expropriation
8. Distributive crises and access to social protection
9. Enmeshment and the limits of state infrastructural power
10. Distributive crisis, elite fragmentation and the collapse of the EPRDF
11. Late-late development and political order.

Subject Areas: Constitution: government & the state [JPHC]