The securitisation of democracy and development and the politics of Ethiopia's ruling coalition (1991-2018) : towards a logics of action approach to securitisation

Abstract

This study analyses the outcomes of securitisation of democracy and development by the Ethiopian People`s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) (1991-2018). To this effect, a framework anchored on the logics of action approach is developed. The approach identifies the concerns of the EPRDF in securitising democracy and development, and in devising and implementing policies in the areas of fighting rent-seeking, intra-party governance and mobilization, and definition of threats and identification of enemies. The result, in general, indicates that while the discourse and policies of the regime suggest the securitisation of democracy and development, the practice rather indicates the securitisation of dissent as a threat to regime survival. This latter aspect of the strategic use of non-security speech acts/discourses to pursue an essentially security agenda is not accounted for in the mainstream literature on securitisation. By introducing the logics of action approach, this study makes four contributions to the literature on securitisation. First, it accounts for the practices of actors that are not justified by or imbued with a security speech act or discourse. Hence, it makes sense of the pursuit of regime survival by the EPRDF as an existential concern above democracy and development. Second, it explains the effect of why an issue is securitised on what outcome securitisation results in. The case in which a faction of TPLF leaders` goal of surviving in power inspired both the securitisation of democracy and development in the first place, and strongly shaped the formulation and implementation of governance and development policies afterwards, can be taken as illustrative of this fact. Third, it introduces the concern of the securitising actor as a key determinant of the normative desirability of securitisation. The study argues that securitisation might be Janus-faced: even as it is abused for self-serving ends, it can have security enhancing effects when an emancipatory issue is securitised. Finally, by applying the logics of action framework to the Ethiopian case, the study suggested a new conceptualization of securitisation dominantly focusing on an actor-threat interface and that moves away from centring speech acts and audience. The study in general demonstrated that speech acts and audience acceptance cannot be considered a true test of securitisation.