Autocratic Ethno-federalism, Regime Change, and Ethiopia's Tigray War

Adam Fefer, WCED visiting associate and political science Ph.D. candidate, University of California, San Diego

This lecture is about “autocratic ethno-federations” (AEs), countries under which more than half a billion people live. Fefer asks why AEs become more or less democratic, hypothesizing that key to explaining these regime changes under AE are levels of centralization and ethnic inclusion. He corroborates this hypothesis by analyzing three twenty-first century regime changes in Ethiopia and concludes by connecting Ethiopia’s recent autocratization to the Tigray War.