BY MULUGETA GUDETA
Political culture is generally defined as, “the set of attitudes, beliefs, and sentiments which give order and meaning to a political process and which provide the underlying assumptions and rules that govern behavior in the political system. It encompasses both the political ideals and the operating norms of a polity.” The history of Ethiopia’s political culture is often characterized by authoritarian orders imposed from above with the basic assumption that the people are not capable of creating a less authoritarian or a more democratic political order.
The underlining assumptions of such a set of beliefs are that the people are not yet ready for self-rule or democratic governance and should be led by political elites until the people could attain a level of political consciousness that could allow them to take their fate into their own hands. This was long considered a political ideal or objective that both the rules and the ruled should accept or adhere to. As a corollary of this, democracy was theoretically conceived as a “government for the people, from the people and by the people.” But in practice it was a government by the few self-proclaimed elites in the name of the people and not by the people or for the people.
Political cultures vary from one country to another and “there is no universally applicable set of cultures that would meet the requirements al countries. Likewise the contents of political cultures are in large measuresunique to each particular society. Studies of different political cultures therefore tend to emphasize different themes, and the ultimate test of the utility of a theory of political culture will depend upon its value for comparative and generalized analysis.”
As we said above, Ethiopian culture was long defined authoritarian one party or one person rule presented under various names as democratic governance. From roughly 1974 to 1991, Ethiopian political culture evolved in the direction of one-party rule at the head of which is found the “strong man” or as “the big man” as he called across Africa. Whether this man comes from the military or from the civilian political elites did not matter much. Thus, there was no basic difference between the Derg’s one party-one man rule called the Workers Party of Ethiopia or the EPRDF, both being governed by similar sets of beliefs and assumptions.
Whenever elections were taking place under such political systems or cultures, they were either rubberstamp exercises closely controlled by the ruling parties or their patrons. The elections were basically violent end led to large-scale human rights abuses and repressive measures whose sole purpose was to punish the people for trying to exercise their natural rights for self-government.
One of the defining characteristics of a modern governance culture is the holding regular, free, fair, transparent and plausible elections. Past elections in Ethiopia claimed that they met these criteria but in practice they fell short of the universally accepted norms of a modern democratic political culture.
There were so far five elections held in Ethiopia and all of them took place under a political culture of authoritarianism sometimes portrayed as “democracy from above”. In practice however, they were continuations of past autocratic practices under new guises or new names.
The cumulative effects of these practices led to conflict between the elitist conception of political culture and the mass demand for genuine democracy from below resulting in many cases of election violence, the latest and most memorable one being the one that occurred in 2005. Since then, Ethiopian political culture has been strongly defined by absence of democratic and human rights in a bid by the state to ensure the continuity of its autocratic domination.
This year’s Election 2021 is largely believed to be a radical departure from past electoral practices for many reasons. The political space is wider now than it was at any time during past elections. Harassment or repression of opposition parties or their leaders was absent from Election 2021. The transitional ruling authorities have repeatedly expressed their willingness or readiness to make the playing field more level and abide by the popular will as expressed during the election. They have definitely honored their commitment as the electoral process whereby all parties found ample room for self-expression and popularization of their election manifestos.
The ruling party has also pledged that it will accept the results of the election gracefully and give power to the winners while turning itself into an opposition party and continue to fight for its program. This is a rare case of political commitment by a ruling party. Similar pledges were made in the past and were quickly forgotten as the ruling party tried to tamper with the results of the electoral process or cheat during the ballots. Similarly, Election 2005 was a unique opportunity for opposition parties to make an important breakthrough in democratic electioneering. However the hopes of the electorate were dashed as the ruling party resorted to the same old behaviors of tampering with the results of the election and in case it could not do so, it arrested opposition leaders and nullified the results of the election together with their gains.
Election 2021 seems to have come at a time when both the ruling and the opposition parties have agreed to play by the democratic rules they agreed on. They seem to have learnt important lessons in democratic politicking and committed themselves not to repeat them. There is an apparently radical break with past practices as the elections were held in an atmosphere of relative freedom and no threats of violence.
Judging by reports both from the ruling and opposition parties, this year’s election has been free from the acts of violence that have characterized election 2005 for instance. A new political culture is certainly in the process of being nurtured. Ethiopia is definitely making baby steps in the direction of genuine democracy. However this new culture is as fragile and as the tree seedlings the voters planted after casting their ballots during last Monday’s general election. Democracy, like the seedlings needs nurturing, care, patience and good management.
The prevailing widespread misconception about elections in Africa is that they would resolve all the problems that have led to past political crises. The same is true with Ethiopia that is currently facing economic, social and political challenges. These problems are in fact emanating from domestic as well as foreign sources. The post-election period will not only be a time of power sharing among the winners at the ballots. It will also be a time for urgent actions or policy measures to overcome the challenges the country is facing now and will continue to face until practical solutions would be implemented by the winning parties in the process of democratic consensus building.
The rising cost of living and the urgent need to address it before it leads to deep popular discontent should obviously be the item on top of the economic agenda after the inauguration of the new parliament sometime next September. The good thing is that a new governing coalition will probably be responsible for issuing feasible policies and implementing them without much ado.
There will be real debates around economic issues among the new members of parliament who will not certainly be all members of a single party. It will no more be a matter of a single party deciding for everybody but a coalition of parties debating policies and arriving at a consensus. It will also be a good thing that the emerging ruling coalition will alleviate the burden of a single party trying to do everything on its own and causing much havoc in the process.
Responsibility for policies matters will be dealt with horizontally among many parties rather than vertically by one party with one man at the top. The face or composition of the new parliament will no doubt be a more dynamic and more assertive one instead of the traditional ones whereby delegates gather only to approve policies decided upon by the executive in the closed chambers of the ruling party. This will by itself be a quantum leap for Ethiopia to abandon the so far closed and autocratic political culture.
As indicated above, democracy in Ethiopia is very fragile at this stage. There may be unexpected stresses and strains coming from both the domestic constituencies as well as foreign interests. Ethiopian political culture is largely faced in the past with both domestic and foreign actors with varying degrees of impacts. Election 2021 has not been free from these strains and stresses.
One of the urgent tasks of the new power structure will thus be to overcome the domestic and foreign stresses and strains that may infringe upon the democratic process or create moments of unexpected crises, policy twists and turns. Playing the democratic game in a new parliament with new members and new objectives will no doubt be a time consuming exercise unless consensus and compromise come into the picture to resolve policy differences that might lead to political impasses.
The entire political culture of the pre-election 2021 period will thus have to be overhauled and conducted new rules and procedures for guiding the activities of the new parliament by all the deputies who will have equal rights of expression and debating time instead of the old arrangement that gave more time and opportunity to deputies from the ruling party while undermining the views and positions of delegates from opposition parties.
By the way, one sign that Ethiopia’s democratic culture is changing indeed is also the introduction of new names for old entities. In the past, opposition parties were known as “tekawamiwoch” in Amharic literally meaning “those who oppose”. This is now replaced with the Amharic term “tewedadariwoch” meaning competitors. New words are bound to join the new political lexicon in the coming months and years.
The other challenges are those of watering or taking proper care of the seedling of democracy and be supported by proper institutions and laws. The rule of law and not the rule of the“strong man” will have to be institutionalized and proper procedures of succession should be enshrined in the forthcoming constitution that will come revised, consolidated and with less leaking procedures or loopholes. Holding democratic elections is a very arduous and commendable enterprise in its own right. It is generally a short-lived period of popular excitement and political cliffhanger.
Institutionalizing democracy is, on the other hand, a practice taking decades if not more time. It requires sustained and hard work by many generations of politicians under constitutional watchdog. With last Monday’s successful holding of a democratic election, Ethiopia has won the war for the hearts and minds of its citizens while the greater and long-term battle for turning Ethiopia into a stable, predictable, constitutional and democratic polity has only just started.
The Ethiopian Herald June 29/2021
