5- Understanding Politics through Children’s Views & Practices

Abstract

The Power of Continuity: Ethiopia through the eyes of its children by Eva Poluha Nordiska Afrikainstitutet, 2004, 217 pages

In The Power of Continuity, Eva Poluha, a Swedish social anthropologist, argues that over the last 150 years the relationships between government officials and citizens in Ethiopia have been characterized by hierarchical patron–client relations, an exchange relationship where players have reciprocal needs and expectations, but unequal power and status (Johnson and Dandeker 1990). According to her, these hierarchical modes of government continue to exemplify Ethiopian politics in spite of change of government – from feudal to “socialist” and from “socialist” to “democratic” rule – and “despite [Ethiopian] rulers’, intellectuals’ and students’ fervent preoccupation with change”(p.172). In the present monograph, partly based on her observation while living in the country for more than 30 years, she says, she attempts to identify and understand the processes that are behind the continuity or persistence of such patron–client politics.