The Political Economy of Post-2005 Ethiopia’s Industrial Policymaking: The Quest for State-led Industrialization

This chapter examines the political economy of Ethiopia’s industrial policymaking from the Imperial regime to the current administration of the Prosperity Party. As such, the salient features of the industrial policies and performances of these four periods (the Imperial regime, the Dergue, the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF)-led government and the Prosperity Party (PP)) are reviewed. Most importantly, it focuses on the post-2010 EPRDF's drives towards structural economic transformation through state-led industrialization under the overarching developement path of developemental state model. Hence, it describes how the EPRDF-led government increasingly pursued the development of the manufacturing sector as the prime driver of sustained economic growth and structural transformation. It highlights the structural upgrading limitations of Ethiopia’s industrial policymaking, particularly after the country’s emulation of developmental state ideology in 2005, through which state-led industrialization is the underlying policy premise in the sector. The final section of the chapter explains the apparel firms as a priority sector in Ethiopia's industrial policymaking, state-led industralization.