On 12 December 2019, Tefera Negash Gebregziabher successfully defended his PhD on 'The Party that Consumes the State: The rise of oligarchy in post-1991 Ethiopia'
He studied power concentration through an examination of how the top echelon of the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) apparatus amassed political power and has managed to project that power on to the economy and the mechanisms associated with the politics-wealth nexus for close to three decades.
His main argument is that an Ethiopian oligarchy emerged under the EPRDF regime, as manifested in the political economy of growth, the creation of major conglomerates and the holding onto state power by ruling party elites.
He shows that the reference to some leftist ideological principles as well as the policies and practice of the regime have obscured the concentration of political and economic power by the politico-military elites.
Photos and video of the defence
- Researcher