Pragmatism: What Ethiopia’s Privatisation Project Lacks
Pragmatism seems to be a typical trait in the EPRDF camp, even if it has been declining lately. Since coming to power in 1991, the Revolutionary Democrats have gone through what can arguably be described as a rough policy ride. It is all connected to the timing of their ascendancy to power. The end of the cold war, which saw a dichotomous world of ideological submissions, followed by the collapse of the Soviet Union, brought the economic model of the West to the fore, with no meaningful competition. Capitalism became the buzzword of the day, while democracy is considered the peerless system of governance. Devoted socialists themselves, the EPRDFites were faced with a confusing global reality that made making choices all the more difficult. On the one hand, their long overdue socialist inclination provided them with ideological instruments to bash the fundamentals of capitalism in all its forms. On the other, the rise of capitalism was a force impossible to ignore for any force