Developmental State or a Neo-Liberal Economic Policy:
Answer to Professor Messay`s Essay on a Grand
Coalition to save Ethiopia.
22 June, 2011 | Fekadu Bekele, PhD
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
to save Ethiopia from all the evils the Meles regime has inflicted.
After reading the article twice, I cannot detect the theoretical and
methodological foundation of the article of Professor Messay. However,
Professor Messay believes that his approaches in characterizing the Meles
regime, and Meles himself, and the theory of developmental state are new
theoretical reflections which can be carefully studied. In all the three points
I cannot scrutinize the exact methodological and scientific approaches to
substantiate his theory. Except that he commands the English language
which makes impossible for many to detect his theoretical weakness, I am
not convinced that the article can teach us new things.
If somebody writes such an article he must either explicitly or implicitly
clarify that he follows some paradigmatic approaches to prove that the
article he writes reflects things which are taking place on the ground
.
First of all to pursue authoritarian politics is not a matter of choice, but it is a
desire of certain groups to impose their interests and thereby to shape the
entire political landscape according to these interests. Such kind of
authoritarian politics emanates from the nature of the person who seizes
political power. In order to understand the character of such an
authoritarian ruler one should study the society and the circumstances he
grew up in, and the education system which shaped his mind to behave like
this. Family backgrounds also play decisive roles in shaping the mind of
such an authoritarian ruler. As Meles and his compatriots are the products
of a particular area, even though they boast that they follow this or that
ideology, what ultimately decides their thinking and handling is the
socioeconomic condition and the family background in which they grew up.
Philosophers, psychologists, and men of drama like Schiller have already
proved that the exercise of political power for good or bad can be
conditioned on the particular circumstance in which the political actors are
grown up. To say that Meles had no other option than to be an authoritarian
means that he can alter his mind at any time and become a democrat. That
is why Professor Messay thinks that there is no other option than building a
grand coalition before the country falls into pieces or the situation ends in
bloodshed.
If we accept the argument of Professor Messay as he tried to analyze in his
essay, what Meles and his friends did against Ethiopia was not calculated
from the outset, and they were compelled to follow an ethnic and a neo-
liberal policy because they did not have any other choices. As we all know
Meles and his group could not seize political power without the help of Blair
and the American government. The West in general and America in
particular did everything to eliminate the Mengistu regime to wipe Ethiopian
nationalism out once and for all. Therefore ethnic politics and neo-liberal
economic policy as Meles had introduced and practiced in Ethiopia could
not be materialized without the help of America and England. In all his
previous analysis when Professor Messay accuses the Meles regime, he
either deliberately or unconsciously omits the role of the Americans and the
British in shaping the Ethiopian politics over the last 20 years. Only in a
weakened country in which a regime which pursues ethnic or any other
politics which fits the interests of the West and practices a neo-liberal
economic policy, it is easy for the West to meddle in the internal affairs of
such a weakened country.
Coming to neo-liberalism, it seems that Professor Messay did not
understand the economic policy of the Meles regime prior to the 2005
election. As if the regime until then did not follow a neo-liberal economic
policy, Professor Messay tells us that the Meles regime understood well the
danger of neo-liberalism and has done everything to convince his comrades
to follow his developmental policy which is strictly regulated and
manipulated by the state. To my understanding, prior to the election of
2005, Meles and his regime had agreed with the IMF and the World Bank
to strictly apply the structural adjustment program (SAP). Devaluation of
the Ethiopian birr in relation to the US Dollar, privatization, liberalization of
the internal and foreign market, reducing state budget for social purposes,
so as to canalize the money for productive “purposes”, are all instruments
of neo-liberal economic policies. In all Sub-Saharan African countries
where such a policy was applied, though the negative effects vary from
country to country, in general such a policy has enriched the few and
impoverished the masses. There are well documented studies which show
the negative effects of SAPs. In short the main agenda of SAPs was to de-
industrialize Africa, and to make her dependent on one or two raw material
or agricultural products. The chaotic situation in many Sub-Saharan African
countries, including Ethiopia prove that how SAP was designed to
impoverish the entire continent and canalize wealth to the capitalist West via
different mechanisms. If any country accepts the shock doctrine of the IMF,
it will end up in permanent debt, and payments of this debt permanently by
transferring her hardly won wealth every year become a natural law which
must continue indefinitely. It is a calculated intrigue of the West to
systematically unlock such kinds of governments to pursue a
macroeconomic economic policy which does not work in such backward
countries like that of Ethiopia. After the Meles regime has been applying for
almost fifteen years such a bitter economic policy, to say that he has well
understood the danger of neo-liberalism is a pure mockery against the
Ethiopian people. The misunderstanding of the work of the IMF and the
World Bank is not only the fault of Professor Messay. Many Ethiopian
economists whom I know have the same attitudes; and many of them
cannot understand the ideological foundation of neo-liberalism. Because all
hate the Meles regime, they believe that what our country had to experience
over the last 20 years is solely the work of one dictator. It is perceived that
all foreign forces and their international organizations which shape economic
polices for Third World Countries are by their nature innocent. The
widespread belief is that African dictators block the application of the
policy as is prescribed by the IMF and the school books and thus all
countries are condemned to poverty.
Coming to the developmental state, many development experts, by
eliminating social history and economic anthropology from their heads
convinced many Third World students that the policy of developmental
state is a new phenomenon which can be reduced to few countries. If one
studies the economic history of Europe, at least from the fourteenth century
onwards, state systems had played crucial roles in shaping and manipulating
their economies and social systems. Especially from the sixteenth century
onwards, European Monarchs had pursued an active economic policy to
develop a home market in their respective boundaries. Their approaches
were holistic, and supported by all available instruments to build a coherent
and strong nation in their respective countries. If we come to Japan, there
were well established relationships on one hand between the German and
the Japanese governments, and on the other hand between the United
States of America and Japan during the Meiji dynasty. Japan had sent
some young men to Germany to study the economic performance of
Germany, and sent others to America to study modern administration
systems. The Meiji dynasty which had a well disciplined military
organization, and which was determined to modernize the economy had
forced the industrialization of Japan. The unique socio-cultural condition of
Japan and their disciplined psychological make-up helped Japan to
materialize her inward looking strategy. Without a disciplined bureaucracy,
and without a unique culture which prevails in the society, it was not
possible for Japan and others to pursue their policies. As Professor
Messay believes these countries did not follow a strict free market
economic policy and the rule of law, but the unique relationship that had
prevailed between the banking system, the state and the industrial sector
helped the industrialization of Japan and South Korea. During the 70s and
80s South Korea was governed by military dictators which did not allow
any political participation, and the organization of trade union was strictly
forbidden. As some critical analysts affirm, foreign debt and military
dictatorship are behind the industrialization of South Korea.
To apply in countries like Ethiopia such a strictly state oriented economic
development policy like that of Japan and South Korea is an impossible
task, because the cultural situation of the society and the psychological
make-up of the intelligentsia are factors which block any meaningful
economic agenda. The fragmented and intriguing characters we have, and
the loss of our self-reliance, and weak theoretical background we posses,
are some of the factors which block our wishes to develop Ethiopia. I do
not know any Ethiopian economist who has extensively studied the role of
Mercantilism, and the Works of Friedrich List, Heinrich Pesch, and others,
which are crucial indeed for the application of a developmental state
economic policy. Neither do I know who has a good understanding of
philosophy and tries to combine philosophy, sociology and cultural
transformation with a kind of renaissance economic policy to foster
industrialization policy in our country. As so long as we are stick to the
market economic policy of the IMF and the World Bank it is practically
impossible to get Ethiopia out of the present situation.
Having this in mind, if we come to the advice of Professor Messay to create
a power-sharing arrangement with the regime, I do not believe that the
Meles regime with such a bloody past, and which has been selling our
country to the so-called foreign investors, and systematically destabilizes
our country so that patriotic feelings could not develop among the youth,
will accept an arrangement which could save Ethiopia. Meles and his clique
are determined to see a much weakened Ethiopia, and could stay on power
when they follow such an intriguing policy. Foreigners who know the regime
very well say that Meles and his clique hate Ethiopia, and the divide and
rule system which they have been systematically applying nation-wide over
the last 20 years weakened the entire nation. Today we have in Ethiopia
not a political elite as Professor Messay thinks and believes; instead we
have a Mafia system across the country which has corrupted all the local
administrators. How is it possible to build a grand coalition with such a
regime which dreams day and night to see a very fragmented and weakened
Ethiopia? Meles like his masters, the West hates the concept of a Nation-
State, because only through a strong Nation-State the people of a given
country could freely exercise their true freedom, and build a strong
economy which is based on science and technology. It seems that
Professor Messay does not know what is going on in Ethiopia, and the real
economic and social conditions which the Ethiopian people are subjected
to. Therefore, not only from a theoretical, and paradigmatic point of view,
but also from the conditions which are existing on the ground, and from the
nature of the regime, the proposal of Professor Messay is not acceptable.
At the same time when the Meles regime is in a very desperate position,
and no more in a position to cope with the social and economic crises of
the country it is unwise to call for a grand coalition.
----------------------------------------------------------
The writer can be reached at fekadubekele@gmx.de
Answer to Professor Messay`s Essay on a Grand
Coalition to save Ethiopia.
22 June, 2011 | Fekadu Bekele, PhD
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
- From the outset I would like to
express my frustration that
Professor Messay`s article does
not have any new substance or
cannot be accepted as entailing a
thoughtful idea. Those who side
with the position of the Professor
may think and believe that
to save Ethiopia from all the evils the Meles regime has inflicted.
After reading the article twice, I cannot detect the theoretical and
methodological foundation of the article of Professor Messay. However,
Professor Messay believes that his approaches in characterizing the Meles
regime, and Meles himself, and the theory of developmental state are new
theoretical reflections which can be carefully studied. In all the three points
I cannot scrutinize the exact methodological and scientific approaches to
substantiate his theory. Except that he commands the English language
which makes impossible for many to detect his theoretical weakness, I am
not convinced that the article can teach us new things.
If somebody writes such an article he must either explicitly or implicitly
clarify that he follows some paradigmatic approaches to prove that the
article he writes reflects things which are taking place on the ground
.
First of all to pursue authoritarian politics is not a matter of choice, but it is a
desire of certain groups to impose their interests and thereby to shape the
entire political landscape according to these interests. Such kind of
authoritarian politics emanates from the nature of the person who seizes
political power. In order to understand the character of such an
authoritarian ruler one should study the society and the circumstances he
grew up in, and the education system which shaped his mind to behave like
this. Family backgrounds also play decisive roles in shaping the mind of
such an authoritarian ruler. As Meles and his compatriots are the products
of a particular area, even though they boast that they follow this or that
ideology, what ultimately decides their thinking and handling is the
socioeconomic condition and the family background in which they grew up.
Philosophers, psychologists, and men of drama like Schiller have already
proved that the exercise of political power for good or bad can be
conditioned on the particular circumstance in which the political actors are
grown up. To say that Meles had no other option than to be an authoritarian
means that he can alter his mind at any time and become a democrat. That
is why Professor Messay thinks that there is no other option than building a
grand coalition before the country falls into pieces or the situation ends in
bloodshed.
If we accept the argument of Professor Messay as he tried to analyze in his
essay, what Meles and his friends did against Ethiopia was not calculated
from the outset, and they were compelled to follow an ethnic and a neo-
liberal policy because they did not have any other choices. As we all know
Meles and his group could not seize political power without the help of Blair
and the American government. The West in general and America in
particular did everything to eliminate the Mengistu regime to wipe Ethiopian
nationalism out once and for all. Therefore ethnic politics and neo-liberal
economic policy as Meles had introduced and practiced in Ethiopia could
not be materialized without the help of America and England. In all his
previous analysis when Professor Messay accuses the Meles regime, he
either deliberately or unconsciously omits the role of the Americans and the
British in shaping the Ethiopian politics over the last 20 years. Only in a
weakened country in which a regime which pursues ethnic or any other
politics which fits the interests of the West and practices a neo-liberal
economic policy, it is easy for the West to meddle in the internal affairs of
such a weakened country.
Coming to neo-liberalism, it seems that Professor Messay did not
understand the economic policy of the Meles regime prior to the 2005
election. As if the regime until then did not follow a neo-liberal economic
policy, Professor Messay tells us that the Meles regime understood well the
danger of neo-liberalism and has done everything to convince his comrades
to follow his developmental policy which is strictly regulated and
manipulated by the state. To my understanding, prior to the election of
2005, Meles and his regime had agreed with the IMF and the World Bank
to strictly apply the structural adjustment program (SAP). Devaluation of
the Ethiopian birr in relation to the US Dollar, privatization, liberalization of
the internal and foreign market, reducing state budget for social purposes,
so as to canalize the money for productive “purposes”, are all instruments
of neo-liberal economic policies. In all Sub-Saharan African countries
where such a policy was applied, though the negative effects vary from
country to country, in general such a policy has enriched the few and
impoverished the masses. There are well documented studies which show
the negative effects of SAPs. In short the main agenda of SAPs was to de-
industrialize Africa, and to make her dependent on one or two raw material
or agricultural products. The chaotic situation in many Sub-Saharan African
countries, including Ethiopia prove that how SAP was designed to
impoverish the entire continent and canalize wealth to the capitalist West via
different mechanisms. If any country accepts the shock doctrine of the IMF,
it will end up in permanent debt, and payments of this debt permanently by
transferring her hardly won wealth every year become a natural law which
must continue indefinitely. It is a calculated intrigue of the West to
systematically unlock such kinds of governments to pursue a
macroeconomic economic policy which does not work in such backward
countries like that of Ethiopia. After the Meles regime has been applying for
almost fifteen years such a bitter economic policy, to say that he has well
understood the danger of neo-liberalism is a pure mockery against the
Ethiopian people. The misunderstanding of the work of the IMF and the
World Bank is not only the fault of Professor Messay. Many Ethiopian
economists whom I know have the same attitudes; and many of them
cannot understand the ideological foundation of neo-liberalism. Because all
hate the Meles regime, they believe that what our country had to experience
over the last 20 years is solely the work of one dictator. It is perceived that
all foreign forces and their international organizations which shape economic
polices for Third World Countries are by their nature innocent. The
widespread belief is that African dictators block the application of the
policy as is prescribed by the IMF and the school books and thus all
countries are condemned to poverty.
Coming to the developmental state, many development experts, by
eliminating social history and economic anthropology from their heads
convinced many Third World students that the policy of developmental
state is a new phenomenon which can be reduced to few countries. If one
studies the economic history of Europe, at least from the fourteenth century
onwards, state systems had played crucial roles in shaping and manipulating
their economies and social systems. Especially from the sixteenth century
onwards, European Monarchs had pursued an active economic policy to
develop a home market in their respective boundaries. Their approaches
were holistic, and supported by all available instruments to build a coherent
and strong nation in their respective countries. If we come to Japan, there
were well established relationships on one hand between the German and
the Japanese governments, and on the other hand between the United
States of America and Japan during the Meiji dynasty. Japan had sent
some young men to Germany to study the economic performance of
Germany, and sent others to America to study modern administration
systems. The Meiji dynasty which had a well disciplined military
organization, and which was determined to modernize the economy had
forced the industrialization of Japan. The unique socio-cultural condition of
Japan and their disciplined psychological make-up helped Japan to
materialize her inward looking strategy. Without a disciplined bureaucracy,
and without a unique culture which prevails in the society, it was not
possible for Japan and others to pursue their policies. As Professor
Messay believes these countries did not follow a strict free market
economic policy and the rule of law, but the unique relationship that had
prevailed between the banking system, the state and the industrial sector
helped the industrialization of Japan and South Korea. During the 70s and
80s South Korea was governed by military dictators which did not allow
any political participation, and the organization of trade union was strictly
forbidden. As some critical analysts affirm, foreign debt and military
dictatorship are behind the industrialization of South Korea.
To apply in countries like Ethiopia such a strictly state oriented economic
development policy like that of Japan and South Korea is an impossible
task, because the cultural situation of the society and the psychological
make-up of the intelligentsia are factors which block any meaningful
economic agenda. The fragmented and intriguing characters we have, and
the loss of our self-reliance, and weak theoretical background we posses,
are some of the factors which block our wishes to develop Ethiopia. I do
not know any Ethiopian economist who has extensively studied the role of
Mercantilism, and the Works of Friedrich List, Heinrich Pesch, and others,
which are crucial indeed for the application of a developmental state
economic policy. Neither do I know who has a good understanding of
philosophy and tries to combine philosophy, sociology and cultural
transformation with a kind of renaissance economic policy to foster
industrialization policy in our country. As so long as we are stick to the
market economic policy of the IMF and the World Bank it is practically
impossible to get Ethiopia out of the present situation.
Having this in mind, if we come to the advice of Professor Messay to create
a power-sharing arrangement with the regime, I do not believe that the
Meles regime with such a bloody past, and which has been selling our
country to the so-called foreign investors, and systematically destabilizes
our country so that patriotic feelings could not develop among the youth,
will accept an arrangement which could save Ethiopia. Meles and his clique
are determined to see a much weakened Ethiopia, and could stay on power
when they follow such an intriguing policy. Foreigners who know the regime
very well say that Meles and his clique hate Ethiopia, and the divide and
rule system which they have been systematically applying nation-wide over
the last 20 years weakened the entire nation. Today we have in Ethiopia
not a political elite as Professor Messay thinks and believes; instead we
have a Mafia system across the country which has corrupted all the local
administrators. How is it possible to build a grand coalition with such a
regime which dreams day and night to see a very fragmented and weakened
Ethiopia? Meles like his masters, the West hates the concept of a Nation-
State, because only through a strong Nation-State the people of a given
country could freely exercise their true freedom, and build a strong
economy which is based on science and technology. It seems that
Professor Messay does not know what is going on in Ethiopia, and the real
economic and social conditions which the Ethiopian people are subjected
to. Therefore, not only from a theoretical, and paradigmatic point of view,
but also from the conditions which are existing on the ground, and from the
nature of the regime, the proposal of Professor Messay is not acceptable.
At the same time when the Meles regime is in a very desperate position,
and no more in a position to cope with the social and economic crises of
the country it is unwise to call for a grand coalition.
----------------------------------------------------------
The writer can be reached at fekadubekele@gmx.de
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