Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front

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Not to be confused with Ethiopian People's Patriotic Front.

Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front
Colours  Red
Website
eprdf.org.et
This article contains
Ethiopic text. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols
instead of Ethiopic characters.
Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front
Leaders
  • TPLF
    (1988–2018)
  • ODP (2018–2019)
Dates of operation1988–2019
HeadquartersAddis Ababa, Ethiopia
IdeologyEthnic federalism
StatusDissolved. Its ideology still permeates Ethiopian politics.
Allies
Opponents
Battles and warsOromo conflict, Ethiopian Civil War, Eritrean–Ethiopian War

The Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF;

dominated Ethiopian politics from 1991 to 2019. In November 2019, the EPRDF was dissolved, and Prime Minister and EPDRF chairman Abiy Ahmed merged three of the constituent parties (not including the TPLF) into his new Prosperity Party,[5]
which was officially founded on 1 December 2019.

History

During the

Qey Shibir and the 1983–1985 famine in Ethiopia resulting in 400,000 deaths.[6]

The EPRDF was formed by the union of the TPLF and the

Shire in February 1989, which was later disbanded after the establishment of the Transitional Government of Ethiopia).[4]

Following the collapse of the People's Democratic Republic of Ethiopia in the early 1990s, the EPRDF gained support from the United States. Michael Johns, an Africa expert with The Heritage Foundation, wrote in 1991 that "there are some modestly encouraging signs that the front intends to abandon Mengistu's autocratic practices".[7]

Leadership

Organization

The EPRDF was an alliance of four political parties:

The EPRDF was led by a Council as well as an executive committee, whose members were selected every three years by a congress of the party. The four member parties had the same organizational structure. Government and party structures were closely intertwined.[8]

The other five regions of Ethiopia were governed by parties which were either created or heavily influenced by the EPRDF.[9] One of the earliest was the Afar People's Democratic Organization in the Afar Region, which subsequently merged with other Afar political groups to create the Afar National Democratic Party (ANDP).[10] These were the five regional parties:[11]

Ideology

Revolutionary democracy

Revolutionary democracy replaced

peasantry, the bourgeoisie, the proletariat and the comprador bourgeoisie and considers its main adversary to be imperialism, that is free market capitalist states.[13]

The peasantry are considered the main class in Ethiopia, since they form a majority of the population, and they are considered the pillar of Revolutionary Democracy.[14] Upon seizing power, the front was suspicious of the petite bourgeoisie class, believing that they were naturally inclined to oppose the front's policies.[15] Despite this, the front believed it could win over the petite bourgeoisie through economic incentives and successful policy.[15] Importantly, if members of the petite bourgeoisie class oppose the EPRDF, the front will "empty their 'belly and pocket'".[16] The urban proletariat are in contrast naturally inclined towards the EPRDF, and the EPRDF seeks to recruit members of these class so as to strengthen the front's organizational links with the trade unions.[16] The EPRDF asserts that the "local investor", that is, the capitalist, will naturally be hostile towards the front and its policies, and the front should therefore try to persuade this class to become neutral.[16] Religious organizations are deemed reactionary by the EPRDF.[17]

Some people state that the EPRDF has not espoused a well-defined unified ideology or political philosophy. Its members held a variety of positions that could be broadly defined as being to the left of the opposition parties.

free enterprise was tempered by the insistence of protectionism and tariffs
.

Relation to liberalism

The EPRDF opposes liberal democracy, and liberalism in general.[19] Despite this, Revolutionary Democracy can be considered a mixture of communist and liberal thought.[19] The front views liberal democracy and free market capitalism as decadent, and has a "romantic attachment" to the beliefs of Vladimir Lenin, who condemned liberal democracy as the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie (literally the dictatorship of the upper class) while supporting Lenin's assertion of the need for a vanguard party which practices democratic centralism.[19] It considers liberal democracy to be "ill-fit and unsustainable", but ironically much of the front's economic policies are based on the tacit acknowledgement of the need of some liberalism in the economic field.[19]

Relation to communism

With the majority of EPRDF's top leaders being former members of the

Mao Zedong Thought, an ideology conceived by Chinese leader Mao Zedong.[19]

Election results

Election Leader No. of candidates No. of seats won No. of Constituency votes % of Constituency vote Government/Opposition
1995
 Meles Zenawi 1,881
471 / 500
 16,429,727 82.9% Government
2000
 Meles Zenawi
472 / 527
 Government
2005
 Meles Zenawi
327 / 527
 12,237,655 59.8% Government
2010
 Meles Zenawi 1,349
499 / 547
 Government
2015
 Hailemariam Desalign 1,851
500 / 547
 26,403,177 Government

Notes

  1. S2CID 11477280
    .
  2. ^ "Warum Ahmed ein guter Preisträger ist – trotz seiner Fehler" [Why Ahmed is a good winner - despite his mistakes]. ZDF (in German). Archived from the original on 27 February 2021.
  3. ^ "Kommentar: Äthiopiens Reformregierung und die Kräfte des ethnischen Nationalismus" [Commentary: Ethiopia's reform government and the forces of ethnic nationalism]. Deutsche Welle (in German). Archived from the original on 24 May 2021.
  4. ^ a b c d Vaughan, Sarah (2003). Ethnicity and Power in Ethiopia (PDF) (Ph.D.). University of Edinburgh. p. 168. Archived from the original (PDF) on 13 August 2011.
  5. ^ Exclusive: Third day EPRDF EC discussing "Prosperity Party" Regulation. Find the draft copy obtained by AS
  6. ISBN 0-85255-810-4
    .
  7. The Congressional Record
    (6 May 1992).
  8. ^ Parteien in Äthiopien: Zwischen ethnischer Orientierung und Programmausrichtung (PDF). Friedrich Ebert Foundation.
  9. S2CID 154750210
    .
  10. ^ Yasin, Yasin Mohammed (2008). "Political history of the Afar in Ethiopia and Eritrea" Archived 1 March 2012 at the Wayback Machine (PDF). African Affairs, in: Africa Spectrum. 42 (1): p. 39–65.
  11. doi:10.1163/157181106777909849
    .
  12. ^ Vestal 1999, pp. 63–64.
  13. ^ a b Vestal 1999, p. 64.
  14. ^ Vestal 1999, p. 73.
  15. ^ a b Vestal 1999, p. 74.
  16. ^ a b c Vestal 1999, p. 75.
  17. ^ Vestal 1999, p. 77.
  18. ^ a b Ethiopia's Great Run: The Growth Acceleration and How to Pace It (PDF). World Bank. 2015.
  19. ^ a b c d e Melakedingel, Nolawi (10 May 2013). "The Oddities of 'Revolutionary Democracy'". Addis Standard. Retrieved 1 July 2014.
  20. ^ Vestal 1999, pp. 79–80 & 93.
  21. ^ Vestal 1999, p. 116.

References

  • Vestal, Theodore (1999). Ethiopia: A Post-Cold War African State (1st ed.).
    ISBN 0275966100
    .
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