Post-cold War Ethiopian Land Policy and State Power in Land Commercialisation

Abstract Land policy is one of the issues that affects the lives of millions of people in Ethiopia. The main purpose of this chapter is to explore how the policy has become instrumental for state land commercialisation after the 1991 regime change when the guerrilla fighter group—the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF)—took power by overthrowing the military dictatorial government. Based on the data gathered from various sources, the chapter argues that the government has implemented different land policies, all of which were used to strengthen state power over land ownership. This state land monopolisation assisted the government to commercialise land by developing state-sponsored institutions that have been catalysing the process of land transaction in favour of large-scale commercial farming. At the beginning of its coming to power, the EPRDF-led government promised to overhaul the land policy of the country with the objective to ensure fair access to land for the citizens. In the meantime, however, all the legal frameworks were directed towards the strengthening of state power over land. This state domination over land ownership brought about several unintended outcomes, such as corruption and unfair access to the land, which, in turn, resulted in mistrust between the state and society.