The Policymaking, Institutional and Administrative Practices of the Dergue Regime in Ethiopia, 1974–1991

Abstract

This article documents the predominant policymaking, institutional and administrative practices of what came to be known as the Dergue regime that ruled Ethiopia from 1974 to 1991. It identifies and describes the key institutional, individual and group players that had exclusive claim over the public policymaking process and that were in the driving seat of the apparatus of public administration. Focusing on the public administration establishments that the Dergue had established in the wake of the People’s Democratic Republic of Ethiopia (PDRE), the article also analyses intergovernmental relationships and the legal, institutional and ideological guidelines put in place to steer them, as well as the implementing agencies reorganised by and fashioned from the centre to implement social and economic policies.