Author(s): Sibuh Gebeyaw Tareke
After the overthrow of the Derg regime in 1991, Ethiopia established a democratic federal state that gave full recognition to ethnic autonomy within a unitary state. Its new Constitution created ethnic-based territorial units as a reaction to some long-standing historical conflicts. Nevertheless, the implementation of Ethiopian federalism has produced mixed effects. On the one hand, it provides all the constitutional and democratic principles to each ethnic group that had not before. In contrast, it's a socialist federation built on centralist democratic federations' virtue. It grants the right of secession for each ethnic group to create their homelands. In common with other countries where such federations were introduced, it has created new conflicts, aggravated existing conflicts, and endangered state unity. Deploying empirical and qualitative case methods, this study investigated and critically examined the causes, trends, impacts of federalism's design in Ethiopia in general and particularly in the Amhara regional state. In the end, it provides mechanisms of inter-ethnic conflicts in the Amhara regional state.