Paper short abstract:

How do changes among national level political elites affect everyday politics? This paper explores the question through an in-depth case study of the construction sector in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The paper draws on six months of fieldwork, including formal interviews and participant observation.

Paper long abstract:

How do changes among national level political elites affect everyday politics? This paper explores the question through an in-depth case study of the construction sector in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

After years of anti-government protests, Ethiopia's ruling coalition was forced in 2018 to adopt wide-ranging political reforms. This has included major changes among political elites, as well as a renegotiation of the elite pact, de facto determining the rules of the game for politics, the economy and social interactions more broadly. The new civilian government enjoyed broad support and was perceived as legitimate by a large proportion of the Ethiopian society. While initially there existed high hopes for a transition towards more democratic rule, the exacerbation of ethnic and other forms of communal conflicts, the outbreak of a civil war between the federal government and the regional government in Tigray, decreasing state capacity to implement proposed reforms and an increase in corruption have tempered expectations. Hybrid at best, authoritarian at worst, the ruling government in Ethiopia has struggled due to lack of cohesion among elites, erosion of central power, decentralisation of rent extraction and rent distribution and lack of clear ideological underpinnings. Taking the construction sector in Ethiopia's capital as an entry point, the paper explores how the fragile and fragmented nature of the elite pact affects state - business relations, determines access to and prices of materials and directly shapes the formal and informal rules and institutions governing the sector. The paper draws on six months of fieldwork.