Chapter 5. Livelihoods and poverty.pptx

Chapter 5. Reducing poverty and
widening the political space
 Widening the political space is the prerequisite to
reduce poverty.
 To improve trust and interest in the political
settings and the political authorities
 To widen the window of opportunities in the
processes of accessing the livelihood assets.
 To integrate citizens and to bring inclusive
development .
8/3/2023
1 Dr. Mulugeta B, Daye GODS and CPDR

5.1 The characteristics of the width of the
political space
 The width of political space directly related to the nature of
governance.
 The width of political space can be used in several contexts
such as corporate governance, international governance,
national governance and local governance.
 Since governance is the process of decision making and the
process by which decisions are implemented, an analysis of
governance
 focuses on the formal and informal actors involved in decision-
making and implementing the decisions made and the formal
and informal structures that have been set in place to arrive at
and implement the decision.
 The link between governance and the political space is the
wider the political space the good the governance will be . The
narrower the political space the bad the governance will be
8/3/2023

Cont’d…
 Since governance is the process of decision
making and the process by which decisions are
implemented, an analysis of governance
 focuses on the formal and informal actors
involved in decision-making and implementing
the decisions made and the formal and informal
structures that have been set in place to arrive at
and implement the decision.
 The link between governance and the political
space is the wider the political space the good
the governance will be . The narrower the political
space the bad the governance will be
8/3/2023

Cont’d…
 State is one of the actors in governance. Other
actors involved in governance vary depending on
the level of government that is under discussion.
 In rural areas, for example, other actors may
include influential land lords, associations of
peasant farmers, cooperatives, NGOs, research
institutes, religious leaders, finance institutions
political parties, the military etc.
 The situation in urban areas is much more
complex.
8/3/2023

Cont’d…
 Similarly formal state structures are one means
by which decisions are arrived at and
implemented.
 At the national level, informal decision-making
structures, such as "kitchen cabinets" or informal
advisors may exist.
 In urban areas, organized crime syndicates such
as the "land Mafia" may influence decision-
making.
 In some rural areas locally powerful families may
make or influence decision-making. Such,
informal decision-making is often the result of
corrupt practices or leads to corrupt practices.
8/3/2023

Wider Political space
 Has 8 major characteristics. 1.It is participatory,
2.consensus oriented, 3. accountable,
4.transparent, 5.responsive, 6. effective and
efficient, 7.equitable and inclusive and follows
8.the rule of law.
 It assures that corruption is minimized, the views
of minorities are taken into account and that the
voices of the most vulnerable in society are heard
in decision-making. It is also responsive to the
present and future needs of society.
8/3/2023

1.Participation
 Participation by every identity is a key
cornerstone wider political space .
 Participation could be either direct or through
legitimate intermediate institutions or
representatives.
 It is important to point out that representative
democracy does not
 necessarily mean that the concerns of the most
vulnerable in society would be taken into
consideration in decision making. Participation
needs to be informed and organized.
 This means freedom of association and
expression on the one hand and an organized
civil society on the other hand.
8/3/2023

2. Consensus oriented
 There are several actors and as many view
points in a given society.
 The width of political space requires mediation of
the different interests in society to reach a broad
consensus in society on what is in the best
interest of the whole community and how this
can be achieved.
 It also requires a broad and long-term perspective
on what is needed for sustainable human
development and how to achieve the goals of
such development.
 This can only result from an understanding of the
historical, cultural and social contexts of a given
society or community. 8/3/2023

3. Accountability
 Accountability is a key requirement of the width of the
political space .
 Not only governmental institutions but also the private
sector and civil society organizations must be
accountable to the public and to their institutional
stakeholders.
 Who is accountable to whom varies depending on
whether decisions or actions taken are internal or
external to an organization or institution. In general
an organization or an institution is accountable to
those who will be affected by its decisions or actions.
 Accountability cannot be enforced without
transparency and the rule of law.
8/3/2023

4.Transparency
 Transparency means that decisions taken and
their enforcement are done in a manner that
follows rules and regulations.
 It also means that information is freely available
and directly accessible to those who will be
affected by such decisions and their enforcement.
 It also means that enough information is provided
and that it is provided in easily understandable
forms and media.
8/3/2023

5.Responsiveness
 Wider political space requires
that institutions and processes
try to serve all stakeholders
within a reasonable timeframe.
8/3/2023

6.Effectiveness and efficiency
 Wider political space means that processes and
institutions produce results that meet the needs of
society while making the best use of resources at
their disposal.
 The concept of efficiency in the context of wider
political space also covers the sustainable use of
natural resources and the protection of the
environment.
8/3/2023

7.Equity and inclusiveness
 A society’s well being depends on ensuring that
all its members feel that they have a stake in it
and do not feel excluded from the mainstream of
society.
 This requires all groups, but particularly the most
vulnerable, have opportunities to improve or
maintain their well being
8/3/2023

8.Rule of law
 Wider political space requires fair legal
frameworks that are enforced impartially.
 It also requires full protection of human rights,
particularly those of minorities.
 Impartial enforcement of laws requires an
independent judiciary and an impartial and
incorruptible police force.
8/3/2023

5.2.Political space and the Land
tenure in Ethiopian Context
. The land tenure :The Gebbar System: The narrow
political space imposed on Southern Eastern
and Western people two by Ethiopian Feudal
Government .
Now let’s discuss the gebbar system of the land
holding first in the northern Ethiopia as the basic form
of social and political structure and second as it was
applied in the southern part immediately after
Menilke’s expansion till early 1950s. Historians
characterize this period of modern Ethiopian history
as the period of consolidation of the modern Ethiopian
state with the expansion of the gebbar system from its
northern historical core areas into the southern areas.
8/3/2023

Cont’d…
 In the north Ethiopia social stratification in relation
to political hierarchy attained well-established
form through centuries-long process of integration
within the framework of the Christian state.
 The system of political organization was based on
the social structure founded on the relationship
between the state (the monarchy and the nobility)
the church (the clergy) and the peasantry.
8/3/2023

Cont’d…
 The relationship was defined by each groups’
relationship to the means of production i.e land.
In the north society, land holding rights were
ordered according to the basic principles of the
society. Each of the categories had a complex
arrangement of rights and obligations in relation
to land and to those who claim rights over it.
These arrangements include kinship, the state
and the church (religion).
8/3/2023

Cont’d…
 First instance rights over land were claimed by
the descent group (based on kinship). This are
called rist right. Rist is a land held and transmitted
hereditarily based on individual claims to descent
and his/her effective possession of land. All
members of a kin group have rights to a share of
land. This means hereditary right can not be lost
through absence and that reallocation of land can
be practiced to accommodate all new claimants
for the land. Rist land was also transmittable
along both parents.
8/3/2023

Cont’d…
 Rist in its traditional sense and as used in the
northern Ethiopia can be defined as the rights of
Christians of both sexes to claim, posses, inherit
and pass on to their children land on the basis of
belonging to the same cognatic descents (form
both parents) of a kin group.
 A person who exercises rist rights is called
ristegna and the right was the most clearly
defined and nearly absolute right over land.
Customary law dictated that rist rights cannot be
forfeited provided effective proof of descent is
established and the right must be recognized by
the state. To the northern peasantry, rist rights
8/3/2023

Cont’d…
 Any attempt to force change in the rist system
was regarded as a threat to the security of
traditional life and were highly resisted. However,
hereditary rist rights can be abrogated and
confiscated by the state if the ristegna failed to
pay tax. That is to say, rist right gave practically
all of the peasantry in the northern society land
right but rist holders were subjected to the
Gebbar system.
8/3/2023

Cont’d…
 This system required the peasantry to support the
non-productive class of the society through
taxation of the surplus produced. The taxation
was comprehensive, multiple and very
burdensome. Tax was levied on the peasantry on
every thing they had. The peasantry also had to
provide labor for groups on the privileged
positions.
8/3/2023

Cont’d…
 For instance, there were more than twelve forms
of taxation and three important local level tax
appropriators which in their descending order of
rank constituted mislene (supervisor of tax
collection) Malekegna (military enforces of order)
and Cika Shum(the one who deliberate upon
judicial matters of local disputes). Each of these
hierarchies of local tax officials passed on the tax
they collected to the next hierarchy keeping some
portion for themselves until the tax reached the
imperial center.
8/3/2023

Cont’d…
 In the traditional northern society the peasantry
exercised control over land through hereditary
claims and its relation with the political center was
defined by the requirement of taxation and tribute
to the state. However, the state in general and the
king in particular also exercised a more direct
control over land form politically derived rights.
The nobility as the second-in-rank to the
monarchy also exercised control over land by the
state-granted rights .The monarchy had extensive
rights over land. He claimed the right for tribute
over all land except the church land
8/3/2023

Cont’d…
 The state also claimed rights on land by confiscating
the land of rebellious personas a punishment. The
state also claimed rights over land which was
unclaimed by a descent group or unused land.
 The state by holding extensive rights over land
exercised another system of land holding, which was
common in the northern part but later on expand into
the southern part. This was the Gult rights. Gult is the
rights of tribute appropriation from peasants granted
by the emperor to various ranks of military class, the
church and others in return for their military,
administrative and religious services rendered to the
emperor. Gult grants were used as substitute for
salaries and as a means to rewarding loyal service.
8/3/2023

Cont’d…
 The regional nobility being the main local
functionary enjoyed gult grants by the state. Gult
rights can be of two types. It can be a right given
to the gultegna to pay no or reduced tribute to the
state or it can be a right to collect tribute in behalf
of the state and keep a portions or all of it.
 Gult rights were temporary depending on the
service provided to emperor. But in some
instances gult grants can be granted permanently
for a recipient or can be vested hereditarily on
his/her family resulting in rist-gult claim. In
practice gult rights are grants to a recipient not of
the land but only the peasantry working on the
8/3/2023

Cont’d…
 As a result, the gultegna can not dispose off the
peasantry his/her right to rist except on failure to
pay tax. Because gult grants were not permanent,
they gave the emperors convenient and effective
way of controlling the behavior of local
functionaries. In the northern traditional society
the church as an institution and the clergy as its
functionary also exercised control over land.
Traditionally the church claimed 1/3 of the land of
the state. This church land was called samon land
in which the church enjoyed certain rights as a
compensation for the provision of religious
services. 8/3/2023

Cont’d…
 Samon land paid no tribute to the state and it only
implied an obligation of anyone working on the land to
pay tribute to the church. The church also enjoyed
gult grants called royal grants by the state and it can
also be granted rist-gult rights called church rist-gult.
A peasant whose land was given to the church as
church rist-gult theoretically losses his/her rist right
and become a tenant of the church and the clergy
using the advantage of being the main church
functionary can evict the peasant from the church rist-
gult land and can work on it by itself. But the clergy
can not claim the church land as private property and
transfer the land through sale or inheritance. Land
grants to the church were irrevocable and were not
8/3/2023

Cont’d…
 In general, social stratification in the traditional
northern society based itself on each groups’
relation to land. The peasantry with rist right was
at the bottom of the social and political hierarchy
being subjected to different taxation requirements
to the different hierarchies (both secular and
religious) of power relationships.
8/3/2023

Cont’d…
 In general under the gebbar system the secular
and religious hierarchies functioned collectively to
sustain a respect for authority which the state
viewed as a primary value. The state for its part
compensated them by respecting their centuries-
long rights over land the ultimate benefit of which
was the right to collect and appropriate taxation
and tribute. The heavy burdens of the
arrangement fell on the peasantry beyond
imaginable proportions first in the northern areas
and later on the southern part of the expanded
Ethiopian empire state.
8/3/2023

Cont’d…
 The Menilke expansion into the south was
followed by similar mechanisms of exercising
authority and appropriating land and labor in the
southern areas.
 in what to follow we will discuss the particular
features of exercising authority in the south in
relation to land relationships in terms of changes
and continuities to the traditional form prevalent in
the northern areas we discussed above.
Following the Menelik’s expansion, social
stratification based on the relationship of
individuals and groups to land was established in
the new areas. 8/3/2023

Cont’d…
 To compensate for the limitation of organization
and resource of the state, and to transcend over
barrier of language and cultural difference and to
facilitate collection of taxation, the new authority
from the north instrumentally used indigenous
authorities called the southern balabats as
intermediary. Some of these local balabats were
part of the local authority even before the Menelik
expansion.
8/3/2023

Cont’d…
 Based on their peaceful submission they were
made to retain their position and recognized and
accorded status and economic privileges. In
areas where traditional authority was abolished
by Menelik forces the balabats were drawn from
the local population based on their willingness to
serve the ruling group loyally and as a result they
were given similar privileges. In any case both
types of balabats were to serve in supervision
and collection of tribute for the state. The
balabats were also beneficiaries in that they were
privileged to keep a portion of the tax they
collected, or pay reduced tax or exempted. 8/3/2023

Cont’d…
 The arrangement transformed the southern
balabats into a privileged land holding class by
their own standard. They assumed similar
authority like that of the northern local authorities
in the northern areas such as the chika shum,
melkegna and/or meslegne.
 Likewise/similarly, they (balabats) commanded
labor and service of the southern peasantry. Even
they were different in that they possessed land as
their personal property reducing the peasantry
into tenants. In this respect the peasantry in
the south, as different from its northern
counterpart exercised no ownership of land
(say in the form of rist) 8/3/2023

Cont’d…
 At one level, therefore, the Menelik expansion in
the south did affect the southern social setting by
introducing new class of indigenous landowning
class (i.e.balabat) whose social privilege was
different from the ordinary population by their
privileged access to land and produce of the land.
The balabat land owning class in the south was
one of the new elements in the traditional gebbar
system in its expansion into the southern areas.
8/3/2023

Cont’d…
 At another level, the expansion of the gebbar
system into the southern areas also drastically
transformed the relation of the southern
peasantry to land by making all the southern land
a state owned land. With this the peasantry as
social classes were transformed into gebbar and
became subjected to multiple tribute exactions
losing a considerable portion of their production
and labor immediately to their balabats and
through them to the political center. As far as their
gebbar status, the southern peasants were
similar to those of the northern peasants. But
there were substantial differences. 8/3/2023

Cont’d…
 In the north, the tribute paying peasant was also
a ristegna and cannot, under normal
circumstances, be evicted from land or cannot be
forced into tenancy. But in the south, the
peasantry’s position to land was ambiguous and
insecure and remains on the land on the wishes
of the state and the local balabats. The Menelik
expansion into south also brought about the
replication of the northern land holding system of
course with new elements added to it.
8/3/2023

Cont’d…
 The state like in the north, claimed all southern
land calling it madeira land and distributed it to its
lower political-administrative units which were
filled by either the local balabats or state
functionaries form the north. The state used such
maderia lands as one form of state grants and
used as a payment for service rendered to it.
These kinds of state grants were known as shum-
shir land and as such were not permanent grants.
As a result these were different from rist-gult or
gult grants.
8/3/2023

Cont’d…
 In the southern context, rist-gult or gult grants were
granted to Meneilk’s top war leaders. Most of the time
these recipients did not actually possessed their
grants in the south for most of them lived in their
original areas in the north or in Addis Ababa. In effect
the southern rist-gult or gult holders were absentee
landlords who left their grants to their
representatives. The Orthodox Church also enjoyed
land rights in the southern area in similar fashion like
in the north. Another group form the north that gained
land holding rights in the south was made out of
ordinary peasants form northern provinces who came
along the Menelik military expeditions as soldiers,
messengers, prison guards and as tax-paying 8/3/2023

Cont’d…
 These groups were differently called netche
lebashe or neftegna. From the above discussion
we can say that the Menelik expansion brought
the spread the qebbar system from its historical
and traditional origins in the northern part to the
southern part.
 In all of these contexts the essence of the system
was the establishment of tributary relationship the
ultimate goal of which was to consolidate the
political, economic and social position of the
ruling class at the expense of the ruled majority.
8/3/2023

Cont’d…
 However, in the course of its expansion into the south
with Menelek’s expansion, the gebbar system evolved
into two distinct features. First, the gebbar system in
the north had centuries-long existence and evolved
over time and attained a level of legitimacy both in the
eyes of the appropriator and the appropriated.
 This gave the system in north customary
appropriation characteristics and was relatively
peaceful where the state needed not to have a
frequent use of direct force to transfer wealth form
the peasantry. At least, the tribute paying peasantry
had customarily evolved and as such strong basis to
claim ownership rights over the land against the state.
8/3/2023

Cont’d…
 Second, in the south the gebbar system can be
referred to as predatory appropriation. Tributary
extraction was primarily based on the use of
force and tributary appropriations were chaotic
and involved compulsory transfer of wealth.
However, such distinctions between customary
appropriations versus customary appropriation
were not exact in that even the northern part the
two forms of appropriation coexisted.
8/3/2023

Cont’d…
 During war time for instance, the northern
peasantry had to experience the predatory
demands of the winner warrior class which
historically equate victory with looting and
plundering of the peasantry.

8/3/2023

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