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This article provides an analysis of the role of ideology in the consolidation of a rebel movement as a governing party after war. The Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) that came to power in 1991 is a case of an ideologically oriented armed insurgent turned into an authoritarian ruling party, where the armed group’s radical idea of state transformation and wartime ideology have had a major influence on policies implemented in the post-war period. It is also an example of a party which has made strategic policy shifts and instrumental use of state transformation ideas to bolster its power base, under the guise of the same ideological frame: revolutionary democracy.
The ideology of revolutionary democracy shares the aim of a socialist revolution with mainstream Marxist–Leninist thought. It has, however, its own locally adapted programme of action and policy goals. The EPRDF had two major policy projects after it took power in 1991: the introduction of ethnic-based federalism, and later, the launch of the developmental state. While the introduction of ethnic federalism can be seen as a manifestation of the rebels’ ideological visions of a new Ethiopian revolutionary democratic state, federalism has also been used pragmatically to consolidate central party power. The launch of the developmental state in the early 2000s can in one way be seen as a natural next step in this consolidation process, entailing a further concentration of power in the hands of the central party state. The two policies have both been ideologically justified and organizationally implemented within the same ideological frame of revolutionary democracy. In this way, this ideology has served as a flexible and malleable political, institutional and organizational tool, concealing and mitigating potential tension between policies. Still, the use of revolutionary democracy has not managed to mask completely that these two major peacetime policies in principle represent contradictions in terms of central–regional power relations, federalism devolving power while the developmental state centralizes control. This contradiction is one of the key reasons behind the protests erupting in the country from 2015, which ultimately led to democratizing reforms within the ruling party and the government in 2017 and 2018.
Through the exploration of a variety of sources, including party statutes and programmes, government plans, key informant interviews and secondary literature,...