Thermidor in Ethiopia? Agrarian Transformations between Economic Liberalization and the Developmental State

The article contributes to the debate about the historical trajectory of state formation in Ethiopia and, by employing the notion of Thermidorian Situation as developed by Bayart, discusses some recent shifts in the land policy towards agricultural commercialization. The Ethiopian Thermidor sheds light on the extent to which post-revolutionary elites since the 1990s have adopted selective and original strategies of political and economic liberalization to consolidate their power in the context of neoliberal globalization. The article’s main argument—that contemporary agrarian policies in Ethiopia are inherently contradictory—is elucidated through empirical details on recent reforms of agricultural extensions, cooperatives, micro-finance institutions (MFIs), and agricultural micro and small enterprises (MSEs) in the case study of West Arsi Zone (Oromia Region). The article concludes that the current agrarian transformation in Ethiopia, characterized by selective and incomplete dynamics of liberalization under the developmental state, remains by far central to the overall process of state formation and can be best described through unfolding patterns of (re)configuration and (re)negotiation of spaces and power.