Countries of the World/COUNTRYS.BIN/dp/0127/01272.txt

Text File | 1991-06-25 | 35KB | 599 lines

$Unique_ID{COW01272}
$Pretitle{228}
$Title{Ethiopia
Front Matter}
$Subtitle{}
$Author{Harold D. Nelson, Irving Kaplan}
$Affiliation{HQ, Department of the Army}
$Subject{military
power
ethiopian
government
political
regime
soviet
amhara
ethiopia
percent}
$Date{1980}
$Log{Figure A.*0127201.scf
Global Map*0127202.scf
Figure 1.*0127203.scf
}
Country:     Ethiopia
Book:        Ethiopia, A Country Study
Author:      Harold D. Nelson, Irving Kaplan
Affiliation: HQ, Department of the Army
Date:        1980

Front Matter

Foreword

     This volume is one of a continuing series of books written by Foreign
Area Studies, The American University, under the Area Handbook Program. Its
title, format, and substance reflect modifications introduced into the series
in 1978. The last page of this book provides a listing of other country
studies published. Each book in the series deals with a particular foreign
country, describing and analyzing its economic, national security, political,
and social systems and institutions and examining the interrelationships of
those systems and institutions and the ways that they are shaped by cultural
factors. Each study is written by a multidisciplinary team of social
scientists. The authors seek to provide a basic insight and understanding of
the society under observation, striving for a dynamic rather than a static
portrayal of it. The study focuses on historical antecedents and on the
cultural, political, and socioeconomic characteristics that contribute to
cohesion and cleavage within the society. Particular attention is given to the
origins and traditions of the people who make up the society, their dominant
beliefs and values, their community of interests and the issues on which they
are divided, the nature and extent of their involvement with the national
institutions, and their attitudes toward each other and toward the social
system and political order within which they live.

     The contents of the book represent the work of Foreign Area Studies and
are not set forth as the official view of the United States government. The
authors have sought to adhere to accepted standards of scholarly objectivity.
Such corrections, additions, and suggestions for factual or other changes that
readers may have will be welcomed for use in future revisions.

William Evans-Smith
Director, Foreign Area Studies
The American University
Washington, D.C. 20016

Acknowledgments

     The authors are grateful to individuals in various government agencies
and private institutions who gave of their time, data, special knowledge, and
authoritative perspective. Gratitude is also extended to members of the
Foreign Area Studies staff who contributed directly to the preparation of the
book. These persons include Karen R. Sagstetter and Kathryn R. Stafford, who
edited the manuscript and the accompanying figures and tables; Harriett
R. Blood, who prepared the graphics; and Musa M. Maroofi, whose research
assisted the author of the political chapter. The team appreciates as well the
assistance provided by Gilda V. Nimer, librarian; Ernest A. Will, publications
manager; and Kleeo A. Hondros, administrative assistant.

     Special thanks are due Deborah A. Clement, who designed the cover for
this volume as well as the illustrations on the title page of each chapter.
The inclusion of photographs in this book was made possible by the generosity
of various individuals and public and private agencies. We acknowledge our
indebtedness especially to those persons who contributed original work not
previously published.

Preface

     This study replaces the Area Handbook for Ethiopia, which was completed
in 1970-four years before the forty-four-year reign of Emperor Haile Selassie
was ended by the imposition of provisional military rule, sparked by growing
discontent among large elements of the people. The radical changes introduced
by 1980 had been justified by the new government as necessary ingredients of a
Marxist-Leninist revolution aimed at transforming the country from its
long-term status as one of the world's most underdeveloped.

     Ethiopia: A Country Study examines the changes, progress, and problems
that have occurred in the first six years since the revolutionary government's
assumption of power. Like its predecessor, this study is an attempt to treat
in a compact and objective manner the dominant social, economic, political,
and national security forces at work and to give readers insight into the
goals and values of the people. Sources of information used in the study's
preparation include scholarly works, official reports of governmental and
international organizations, journals, and newspapers. Despite the
comprehensive sifting and analysis by the authors of large quantities of
primary and secondary source materials, a number of gaps in information
necessarily remain on certain subjects. Revision of the political, economic,
and social institutions of the country continued throughout the period of
research, and often the data available on these alterations were uneven,
contradictory and, hence, of questionable reliability. This was particularly
true of statistical material.

     Available books, articles, and other documents that provide important
amplification of subjects treated in this book are noted in the bibliographic
paragraphs at the end of each chapter. Full references to these and other
valuable sources used by the authors in the preparation of this work are
included in the Bibliography.

     The available materials on Ethiopia frequently presented problems in
terms of the different transliterations of place and personal names used by
scholars and other writers. No standardized and universally accepted system
has been developed for the transliteration of Amharic (the most widely used
literary language of the country), and even official publications of the
Ethiopian government vary in their English spellings of proper names. Insofar
as possible the authors of Ethiopia: A Country Study have attempted to reduce
this confusion by adhering generally to the system known as BGN/PCGN, one
agreed to by the United States Board on Geographic Names and the Permanent
Committee on Geographical Names for British Official Use. The major
difficulty, however, stemmed from the fact that the United States Board on
Geographic Names was in the process of revising and updating its official
gazetteer during the course of the study, and the new compilation was largely
unavailable. In these circumstances the authors relied on guidance from the
United States Department of State's Office of the Geographer in the case of
place names. In the case of personal names, the authors have followed the
Amharic tradition of referring to the first element of a name when using it in
a second reference. Thus Mengistu Haile Mariam becomes Mengistu after the
first use. This practice, however, is not universally followed by
international publishers. Therefore, in the Bibliography, Ethiopian authors
may be indexed according to both forms, depending on that used by the
individual publisher.

     The Ethiopian calendar year provides the temporal framework for the round
of events in government, religious ceremonies of the Ethiopian Orthodox
Church, and the activities of the average Ethiopian. Some statistical
documents prepared by the government use the Ethiopian trade year or the
fiscal year and bear a fixed relationship to the Gregorian calendar, and this
relationship is usually noted in official publications. The Ethiopian year
consists of twelve months of thirty days each and one month of five days (six
in leap years). The sequence of years in the Ethiopian calendar runs seven
years behind the Gregorian calendar at the beginning of an Ethiopian year and
eight years behind at its end. Thus the first day, Maskerem 1, and Ethiopian
year 1972 corresponds to the Gregorian September 11, 1979, and the last day
equates to Gregorian September 10, 1980. The relationship of the Ethiopian
calendar, fiscal, and trade years to the