The Making of Strangers: Reflections on the Ethiopian Constitution

Abstract

A constitution is an expression of a political community’s desire to establish a mode of politics for collective life. The normative underpinning of a well-designed and well-structured constitutional order is, therefore, an integrative process of association. Constitutions are meant to forge and develop a political community that enables members to see each other as co-participants in a common project. The Ethiopian Constitution seems to have adopted a model of dissociation rather than one of integrative association. Rather than bringing people together, the Constitution has set them apart. Through close examination of various provisions of the Constitution—from the preamble to the amendment process—this article shows that the Constitution has managed to fragment a people into “peoples”, a nation into “nations”, and in the process transformed neighbors into strangers who often see one another as mortal threats rather than as co-participants in a common project. In the guise of decentralizing power, the Constitution has, in fact, fundamentalized differences. Such an environment will not lend itself either to democratic governance or durable peace.