October 29, 2013
By Daniel Teferra (PhD)* The developmental state paradigm espouses an anti-market, anti-capitalist ideology, arguing in the tradition of Nyerere’s “ujamaa”, Nkrumah’s “consciencism” and Marxian socialism, all advocating for a statist, command growth model rather than a free market system. However, the experience of the former soviet bloc countries and China have illustrated that command growth...
October 22, 2013
Mr. Edmund Blair (Reuters), in his article of October 15th, reports about a concern from the Honorable Mr. Girma Seifu Maru, Ethiopia’s sole opposition member of parliament. The MP says that the Ethiopian Regime is suppressing individual freedom and human rights by following the Chinese model, whose “primary issue is economic development.” However, in the...
October 8, 2013
By Daniel Teferra (PhD)* I just returned from Addis Ababa after giving a paper at an international conference on development in Ethiopia. The Conference was organized by Forum for Social Studies (FSS), a domestic think-tank, the only one of its kind, and Friedrich Ebert Stiftung (FES), a German NGO. While in Addis, I was able...
October 3, 2013
By Daniel Teferra (PhD)* A capitalist state depends on freedom, science, technology and commerce for its prosperity. The Ethiopian state is a non-capitalist state. It relies mainly on controlling land and the peasantry for its survival. The land question in Ethiopia, therefore, is as old as the country. A Newsweek reporter once asked Emperor Haile...
