Fonder un régime sur le recensement ethnique : le fédéralisme éthiopien
Ficquet, Éloi
Fonder un régime sur le recensement ethnique : le fédéralisme éthiopien - 2009.
14
Basing a Regime on Ethnic Census : Ethiopian Federalism After the overthrow of the Marxist and ultra-nationalist military junta in May 1991, power passed into the hands of a coalition of insurrectionary groups who demanded forms of regional autonomy and even independence as well as recognition for their distinct ethnicities. In order to respond to these demands, a federal regime was established by a transitional government and a new constitution was proclaimed in December 1994. The organization of this federal regime was defined by a new partition of territorial units according to ethnic and linguistic criteria. Each federal region was supposed to correspond to the most homogenous ethnic grouping possible. Establishing the new regime thus required a detailed description of the size and distribution of populations declaring a given identity or speaking a given language. Of course, precise data on ethnic and linguistic groups had already been collected by the military junta but this endeavor, which had been carried out by Soviet counselors, was seen as contrary to national unity and abandoned. It was taken up again in 1994 by the transitional government in the framework of a national census. The extremely precise results obtained by this census served to develop entirely new spaces of political representation. One may wonder to what degree data of this type can serve to establish a democratically representative regime. In the application of this malleable new conception of the nation, grounds for dispute did not fail to arise and be debated but, up to this day, they have not led to the breakup of the country. ■
Fonder un régime sur le recensement ethnique : le fédéralisme éthiopien - 2009.
14
Basing a Regime on Ethnic Census : Ethiopian Federalism After the overthrow of the Marxist and ultra-nationalist military junta in May 1991, power passed into the hands of a coalition of insurrectionary groups who demanded forms of regional autonomy and even independence as well as recognition for their distinct ethnicities. In order to respond to these demands, a federal regime was established by a transitional government and a new constitution was proclaimed in December 1994. The organization of this federal regime was defined by a new partition of territorial units according to ethnic and linguistic criteria. Each federal region was supposed to correspond to the most homogenous ethnic grouping possible. Establishing the new regime thus required a detailed description of the size and distribution of populations declaring a given identity or speaking a given language. Of course, precise data on ethnic and linguistic groups had already been collected by the military junta but this endeavor, which had been carried out by Soviet counselors, was seen as contrary to national unity and abandoned. It was taken up again in 1994 by the transitional government in the framework of a national census. The extremely precise results obtained by this census served to develop entirely new spaces of political representation. One may wonder to what degree data of this type can serve to establish a democratically representative regime. In the application of this malleable new conception of the nation, grounds for dispute did not fail to arise and be debated but, up to this day, they have not led to the breakup of the country. ■
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