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Ethiopia Administrative Change and the 1955 Constitution
In pursuit of reform, Haile Selassie faced the
recalcitrance of the provincial nobility, other great
landholders, and church officials--all of whom intended to
maintain their power and privileges. Moreover, some
provincial nobility opposed the emperor because of their own
long-held claims to the throne. Whatever his intentions as a
reformer, Haile Selassie was a political realist and
recognized that, lacking a strong military, he had to
compromise with the Amhara and Tigray nobility and with the
church. And, where required, he made his peace with other
ethnic groups in the empire. For example, he eventually
granted autonomy over Afar areas that Addis Ababa could not
dominate by armed force to the sultan of Aussa. In general,
political changes were few and were compromised at the first
sign of substantial opposition. In the 1950s, despite his
many years as emperor and his international stature, there
was almost no significant section of the Ethiopian
population on which Haile Selassie could rely to support him
in such efforts.
The emperor sought to gain some control over local
government by placing it in the hands of the central
administration in Addis Ababa. He revised the administrative
divisions and established political and administrative
offices corresponding to them. The largest of these
administrative units were the provinces (teklay ghizats), of
which there were fourteen in the mid-1960s, each under a
governor general appointed directly by Haile Selassie. Each
province was subdivided into subprovinces (awrajas),
districts (weredas), and subdistricts (mikitil weredas).
Although the structure outwardly resembled a modern state
apparatus, its impact was largely dissipated by the fact
that higher-ranking landed nobles held all the important
offices. Younger and better educated officials were little
more than aides to the governors general, and their advice
more often than not was contemptuously set aside by their
superiors.
The emperor also attempted to strengthen the national
government. A new generation of educated Ethiopians was
introduced to new enlarged ministries, the powers of which
were made more specific. The emperor established a national
judiciary and appointed its judges. Finally, in 1955 he
proclaimed a revised constitution. Apparently, he sought to
provide a formal basis for his efforts at centralization and
to attract the loyalty of those who gained their livelihood
from relatively modern economic activities or who were
better educated than most Ethiopians.
The younger leaders were mostly the sons of the traditional
elite. Having been educated abroad, they were favorably
disposed toward reform and were frequently frustrated and in
some cases alienated by their inability to initiate and
implement it. The remnants of the small number of educated
Ethiopians of an earlier generation had been appointed to
high government positions. But whatever their previous
concern with reform, they had little impact on traditional
methods, and by the mid-1950s even this earlier reformist
elite was considered conservative by the succeeding
generation.
The new elite was drawn largely from the postwar generation
and was generally the product of a half-dozen secondary
schools operated by foreign staffs. A majority of the
students continued to come from families of the landed
nobility, but they were profoundly affected by the presence
of students from less affluent backgrounds and by their more
democratically oriented Western teachers.
The 1955 constitution was prompted, like its 1931
predecessor, by a concern with international opinion. Such
opinion was particularly important at a time when some
neighboring African states were rapidly advancing under
European colonial tutelage and Ethiopia was pressing its
claims internationally for the incorporation of Eritrea,
where an elected parliament and more modern administration
had existed since 1952.
The bicameral Ethiopian parliament played no part in
drawing up the 1955 constitution, which, far from limiting
the emperor's control, emphasized the religious origins of
imperial power and extended the centralization process. The
Senate remained appointive, but the Chamber of Deputies was,
at least nominally, elected. However, the absence of a
census, the near total illiteracy of the population, and the
domination of the countryside by the nobility meant that the
majority of candidates who sought election in 1957 were in
effect chosen by the elite. The Chamber of Deputies was not
altogether a rubber stamp, at times discussing bills and
questioning state ministers. However, provisions in the
constitution that guaranteed personal freedoms and
liberties, including freedom of assembly, movement, and
speech, and the due process of law, were so far removed from
the realities of Ethiopian life that no group or individual
sought to act upon them publicly.
Data as of 1991
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