Few can tell the story of the Syrian revolution better than Yassin Al-Haj Saleh, who has been engaged in political activism in Syria for decades (spending sixteen years in jail for that, and now living in exile). “The Impossible Revolution: Making Sense of the Syrian Revolution” (2017) is Yassin’s first book in English, but he […]
Tags: #Revolution #Syria #Syrian revolution #Tyranny #Yassin Al-Haj Saleh
Kinfe Abraham (1950-2007) was one of Ethiopia’s leading academics, although his books are not well known outside of the country. In this post I pull some though provoking quotes and ideas from his 1994 publication “Ethiopia from Bullets to the Ballot Box: The Bumpy Road to Democracy and the Political Economy of Transition”. The book […]
Tags: #Democracy #Ethiopia #History #Kinfe Abraham #Resettlement
A previous post covered the main arguments of Dessalegn Rahmato’s “The Peasant and the State: Studies in Agrarian Change in Ethiopia, 1950s-2000s” (2008), this highlights some interesting critiques ofDe Soto’s influential book and argument: “To begin with, by over-emphasizing the determinant role of property law and its legalization de Soto adopts a state-centric view of […]
Tags: #De Soto #Dessalegn Rahmato #Property Law #Property Rights #State
Dessalegn Rahmato is one of Ethiopian social scientists, his ideas and publications have shifted public perceptions on issues of land and the rural smallholder farmers. This posts draws upon his work, “The Peasant and the State: Studies in Agrarian Change in Ethiopia, 1950s-2000s” (2008), which is essential reading for anyone interesting in rural Ethiopia. As […]
Tags: #Agency #Agrarian Change #Dessalegn Rahmato #Ethiopia #Governance
Bahru Zewde has written an excellent book on the history of the student movement in Ethiopia, this book goes back further, to the late 1800s and early 1900s, exploring the activities and impact of the intellectuals of that time period. The book, “Pioneers of Change in Ethiopia: The Reformist Intellectuals of the Early Twentieth Century” […]
Tags: #Bahru Zewde #Ethiopia #History #Pioneers of change #Reformists
A previous post highlighted a publication from Ethiopia, which tend to be lesser known (and harder to find). This post highlights an old publication, similarly challenging to locate copies of, but may prove quite useful for those looking for historical data points for comparability: “Competition and Co-operation: North Ethiopian Peasant Households and their Resource Base” […]