The paradox of the Ethiopian Developmental State: bureaucrats and politicians in the sugar industry

This paper challenges the commonplace characterisation of Ethiopia as a developmental state, by stressing that the Ethiopian model, which heavily relies on political control of the rent process at the expense of the bureaucratic knowledge/expertise, is not conducive for industrial policy implementation. We show that this approach worked fine at early stages of growth, however with the increasing complexity, knowledge- and capital-intensive nature of industrial policy-making and implementation, the crucial role to be played by a capable bureaucracy becomes more evident. This argument is based on the avoidable failures of sugar industrialisation visions, mainly due to the inimical view of the existing sugar bureaucracy in the old sugar factories. Drawing on long-term case study research on state-led sugar industrialisation, this article illustrates that if the Ethiopian state is to become truly ‘developmental’ the need of building a capable bureaucracy as an integral part of the model should be recognised and worked towards.