Social Base of State Power in Post-Revolutionary Ethiopia

As from the Ethiopian revolution of 1974 the location of the state’s social base has been clouded in ambiguity. While it at different times this post-revolutionary state has claimed to represent the peasantry or the proletariat and the peasantry, such claims cannot be taken at face value. This is particularly so in face of the fact that it has repeatedly been violently challenged by the very classes that it claims to represent. It is here argued that while the Ethiopian revolution represented a clear break with the preceding state and social configuration, the subsequent evolu-tion and transformation of post-revolutionary state power is characterised by the retention of its central features and would therefore indicate the continuity of a social base of this state. Employing a theoretical framework informed by Marxian state theorization and based on an analytical schema proposed by Göran Therborn, the effects of state power on the relations of production and the state apparatuses under the two post-revolutionary republics are analysed in order to uncover its class content. It is found that the post-revolutionary state has consistently furthered the position of a fraction of the petty bourgeoisie while encouraging the emergence of a national bourgeoisie from this fraction. The reasons are traced to the pre-revolutionary social configuration.