My research interests focus on the social and political ramifications of structural transformation. In particular, I am interested in the role of state social policy in addressing the social upheaval usually associated with the transformation from a rural, agrarian society to an urban, industrial one, and the implications of changing socio-political constituencies for state-society relations. This focus has led me to conduct research on processes of agrarian transformation, including recent agricultural investment processes frequently described as ‘land grabs’, and my present interest in the political economy changes brought about by processes of urbanisation.
My PhD thesis examined the political economy of social policy and agrarian transformation in Ethiopia. The thesis investigated the Ethiopian government’s use of social policy, and in particular land policy, as a means of managing the processes of structural transformation and urban migration. In doing so, it analysed the rapid expansion of agricultural investments in Ethiopia in the context of Ethiopia’s smallholder-based agricultural development strategy, as well as linking the Productive Safety Net Programme (PSNP), one of the largest food and cash-for-work schemes in Africa to the debate on land ownership.
"This thesis is concerned with social policy during structural transformation, f... more "This thesis is concerned with social policy during structural transformation, focusing on the case of Ethiopia. The thesis takes a realist, case-based approach to the study of social policy, which recognises that political actors construct the domain of ‘social’ policy within legitimising discourses in specific national-historical contexts. Social policy is a key aspect of state-society relations and an inherently political field of study. Consequently, the study integrates analysis of cleavages in domestic society along class and ethnic lines, the role of state organisations and international influences, and their impact on the social policy pronouncements by senior government officials and implementation of those policies on the ground. In the Ethiopian case, this approach highlights the centrality of land to social policy and state-society relations. In particular, state land ownership is a key part of the government’s development strategy that aims to combine egalitarian agricultural growth with security for smallholders. Nevertheless, the failure to expand the use of productivity-enhancing agricultural inputs, which constitute key complements to the use of land for social objectives, has led to differentiation in social policy provision along class, gender, age and ethnic lines. Micro-level case studies link the land question to food security, including the Productive Safety Net Programme (PSNP), and processes of agricultural commercialisation, notably the so-called ‘global land grab’. A main argument of the thesis is that the Ethiopian government is attempting to manage social processes in order to minimise the social and political upheaval involved in structural transformation, and that social policy is a central means by which it does so. The development strategy requires social policies that enable the government to control the allocation of factors of production, necessitating restrictions on the rights of individuals and groups. As such, this strategy is intricately intertwined with political authority."
The Politics of Social Protection in Eastern and Southern Africa, 2019
Existing research tends to focus on the proximate drivers of social assistance expansion in devel... more Existing research tends to focus on the proximate drivers of social assistance expansion in developing countries—including donor advocacy and electoral incentives. This work risks neglecting deeper continuities with longstanding mechanisms by which states distribute resources and the broader political economic context. This chapter examines Ethiopia, home to one of the largest social assistance programmes in Africa, highlighting the deep roots of social assistance within state distributional strategies, particularly regarding land access and food insecurity. Analysis shows how changing political interests and ideology have resulted in the evolution from an ‘agrarian’ distributional regime—which sought to provide welfare through land access—to a ‘productivist-pauperist’ model as part of Ethiopia’s ‘developmental state’ strategy. This model targets social assistance narrowly to specific groups, yet seeks to ensure that support is put to productive use. The chapter draws on seventy key...
Many developing countries are considering insurance as a means of pursuing Universal Health Cover... more Many developing countries are considering insurance as a means of pursuing Universal Health Coverage. A key challenge to confront is how to achieve high levels of health insurance enrolment. For voluntary schemes this entails mass awareness raising and promotional activity, though as schemes move to compulsory enrolment, monitoring and enforcement are required. This paper focuses on Ethiopia, which has made state health insurance for the informal sector a central pillar of its Universal Health Coverage strategy. The paper shows that high enrolment requires particular forms of state capacity, captured by Michael Mann's concept of state 'infrastructural power'. The paper draws on detailed case studies of insurance implementation in the Tigray and Oromiya regions of Ethiopia to illustrate variation in state infrastructural power and the implications for health insurance. Findings suggest that the potential of state health insurance as a means of promoting health access for ...
The current Ethiopian government originated in a Marxist revolutionary movement, which early in i... more The current Ethiopian government originated in a Marxist revolutionary movement, which early in its struggle against the Derg regime recognized the widespread discrimination against women in Ethiopian society and placed gender emancipation at the centre of its revolutionary strategy. While political expediency and confrontation with patriarchal Ethiopian society has at times challenged its commitment to women, the EPRDF has, nevertheless, introduced a number of reforms which aim to promote gender equality. This includes recognition of equality between men and women in land rights, and a land registration programme that requires the names of both husbands and wives on certificates. This paper examines the gendered impacts of these reforms through analysis of three village-level case studies based on fieldwork conducted in 2009-10. The cases highlight the contingent nature of gender outcomes based on local state-society relations, and the government’s political and economic priorities, resulting in considerable variation within Ethiopia.
This paper examines the politics of distributing the Productive Safety Net Programme (PSNP) in Et... more This paper examines the politics of distributing the Productive Safety Net Programme (PSNP) in Ethiopia’s Oromiya region. Drawing on detailed case studies in Arssi and North Shewa, the paper highlights the importance of state infrastructural power in shaping programme distribution. Over 30 years of Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) rule, the party-state project of encadrement, or the incorporation of people into structures of control, has been taken to a new level. The creation of sub-kebele administrative structures and performance evaluations that reach down to the household level have underpinned a massive expansion of state infrastructural power – the ability of the central state to implement policies throughout its territory. The case studies highlight the importance of state infrastructural power in understanding PSNP implementation. Sub-kebele structures have become a key aspect of PSNP implementation, notably in identifying who receives support. Howev...
This chapter considers how decent work policies can contribute to the eradication of poverty, not... more This chapter considers how decent work policies can contribute to the eradication of poverty, notably extreme poverty, in the context of the rural economy – including the agricultural sector and the rural non-farm economy. The renewed interest in agriculture and rural development during the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) period and, in particular, in the framework of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), highlights the potential role of agriculture as a means to improve living standards and achieve decent work.
The notion that social protection should be a key strategy for reducing poverty in developing cou... more The notion that social protection should be a key strategy for reducing poverty in developing countries has now been mainstreamed within international development policy and practice. Promoted as an integral dimension of the post-Washington Consensus that emerged around the turn of the new millennium, all major international development agencies and bilateral donors now include a strong focus on social protection in their advocacy and programmatic interventions, and a commitment to providing social protection was recently enshrined within the Sustainable Development Goals. The rhetoric around social protection, particularly when delivered in the form of cash transfers, has sometimes reached hyperbolic proportions, with advocates seeing it as a silver bullet that can tackle multi-dimensional problems of poverty, vulnerability, and inequality and a southern-led success story that challenges the unequal power relations inherent within international aid. This book examines how the opera...
Ethiopia's Productive Safety Net Programme (PSNP) is among the largest social protection programm... more Ethiopia's Productive Safety Net Programme (PSNP) is among the largest social protection programmes in Africa and has been promoted as a model for the continent. This article analyses the political drivers of the programme, arguing that elite commitment to the PSNP needs to be understood in the context of shifts within Ethiopia's political settlement and the government's evolving development strategy. While food security had long been a priority for the ruling party, the 2002/03 food crisis-coming on the back of a series of other political shocks-was perceived as an existential crisis for the ruling coalition, prompting the incorporation of the PSNP into the existing rural development strategy. Foreign donors provided policy ideas and pushed for reform, but it was not until incentives flowing from the political settlement were favourable that elite commitment was secured. Even then, longstanding ideological commitments shaped the productive focus of the programme, ensuring consistency with the development strategy. While the removal of the PSNP is now unthinkable, the extent to which this represents a broader commitment to social protection remains an open question.
"This thesis is concerned with social policy during structural transformation, f... more "This thesis is concerned with social policy during structural transformation, focusing on the case of Ethiopia. The thesis takes a realist, case-based approach to the study of social policy, which recognises that political actors construct the domain of ‘social’ policy within legitimising discourses in specific national-historical contexts. Social policy is a key aspect of state-society relations and an inherently political field of study. Consequently, the study integrates analysis of cleavages in domestic society along class and ethnic lines, the role of state organisations and international influences, and their impact on the social policy pronouncements by senior government officials and implementation of those policies on the ground. In the Ethiopian case, this approach highlights the centrality of land to social policy and state-society relations. In particular, state land ownership is a key part of the government’s development strategy that aims to combine egalitarian agricultural growth with security for smallholders. Nevertheless, the failure to expand the use of productivity-enhancing agricultural inputs, which constitute key complements to the use of land for social objectives, has led to differentiation in social policy provision along class, gender, age and ethnic lines. Micro-level case studies link the land question to food security, including the Productive Safety Net Programme (PSNP), and processes of agricultural commercialisation, notably the so-called ‘global land grab’. A main argument of the thesis is that the Ethiopian government is attempting to manage social processes in order to minimise the social and political upheaval involved in structural transformation, and that social policy is a central means by which it does so. The development strategy requires social policies that enable the government to control the allocation of factors of production, necessitating restrictions on the rights of individuals and groups. As such, this strategy is intricately intertwined with political authority."
The Politics of Social Protection in Eastern and Southern Africa, 2019
Existing research tends to focus on the proximate drivers of social assistance expansion in devel... more Existing research tends to focus on the proximate drivers of social assistance expansion in developing countries—including donor advocacy and electoral incentives. This work risks neglecting deeper continuities with longstanding mechanisms by which states distribute resources and the broader political economic context. This chapter examines Ethiopia, home to one of the largest social assistance programmes in Africa, highlighting the deep roots of social assistance within state distributional strategies, particularly regarding land access and food insecurity. Analysis shows how changing political interests and ideology have resulted in the evolution from an ‘agrarian’ distributional regime—which sought to provide welfare through land access—to a ‘productivist-pauperist’ model as part of Ethiopia’s ‘developmental state’ strategy. This model targets social assistance narrowly to specific groups, yet seeks to ensure that support is put to productive use. The chapter draws on seventy key...
Many developing countries are considering insurance as a means of pursuing Universal Health Cover... more Many developing countries are considering insurance as a means of pursuing Universal Health Coverage. A key challenge to confront is how to achieve high levels of health insurance enrolment. For voluntary schemes this entails mass awareness raising and promotional activity, though as schemes move to compulsory enrolment, monitoring and enforcement are required. This paper focuses on Ethiopia, which has made state health insurance for the informal sector a central pillar of its Universal Health Coverage strategy. The paper shows that high enrolment requires particular forms of state capacity, captured by Michael Mann's concept of state 'infrastructural power'. The paper draws on detailed case studies of insurance implementation in the Tigray and Oromiya regions of Ethiopia to illustrate variation in state infrastructural power and the implications for health insurance. Findings suggest that the potential of state health insurance as a means of promoting health access for ...
The current Ethiopian government originated in a Marxist revolutionary movement, which early in i... more The current Ethiopian government originated in a Marxist revolutionary movement, which early in its struggle against the Derg regime recognized the widespread discrimination against women in Ethiopian society and placed gender emancipation at the centre of its revolutionary strategy. While political expediency and confrontation with patriarchal Ethiopian society has at times challenged its commitment to women, the EPRDF has, nevertheless, introduced a number of reforms which aim to promote gender equality. This includes recognition of equality between men and women in land rights, and a land registration programme that requires the names of both husbands and wives on certificates. This paper examines the gendered impacts of these reforms through analysis of three village-level case studies based on fieldwork conducted in 2009-10. The cases highlight the contingent nature of gender outcomes based on local state-society relations, and the government’s political and economic priorities, resulting in considerable variation within Ethiopia.
This paper examines the politics of distributing the Productive Safety Net Programme (PSNP) in Et... more This paper examines the politics of distributing the Productive Safety Net Programme (PSNP) in Ethiopia’s Oromiya region. Drawing on detailed case studies in Arssi and North Shewa, the paper highlights the importance of state infrastructural power in shaping programme distribution. Over 30 years of Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) rule, the party-state project of encadrement, or the incorporation of people into structures of control, has been taken to a new level. The creation of sub-kebele administrative structures and performance evaluations that reach down to the household level have underpinned a massive expansion of state infrastructural power – the ability of the central state to implement policies throughout its territory. The case studies highlight the importance of state infrastructural power in understanding PSNP implementation. Sub-kebele structures have become a key aspect of PSNP implementation, notably in identifying who receives support. Howev...
This chapter considers how decent work policies can contribute to the eradication of poverty, not... more This chapter considers how decent work policies can contribute to the eradication of poverty, notably extreme poverty, in the context of the rural economy – including the agricultural sector and the rural non-farm economy. The renewed interest in agriculture and rural development during the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) period and, in particular, in the framework of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), highlights the potential role of agriculture as a means to improve living standards and achieve decent work.
The notion that social protection should be a key strategy for reducing poverty in developing cou... more The notion that social protection should be a key strategy for reducing poverty in developing countries has now been mainstreamed within international development policy and practice. Promoted as an integral dimension of the post-Washington Consensus that emerged around the turn of the new millennium, all major international development agencies and bilateral donors now include a strong focus on social protection in their advocacy and programmatic interventions, and a commitment to providing social protection was recently enshrined within the Sustainable Development Goals. The rhetoric around social protection, particularly when delivered in the form of cash transfers, has sometimes reached hyperbolic proportions, with advocates seeing it as a silver bullet that can tackle multi-dimensional problems of poverty, vulnerability, and inequality and a southern-led success story that challenges the unequal power relations inherent within international aid. This book examines how the opera...
Ethiopia's Productive Safety Net Programme (PSNP) is among the largest social protection programm... more Ethiopia's Productive Safety Net Programme (PSNP) is among the largest social protection programmes in Africa and has been promoted as a model for the continent. This article analyses the political drivers of the programme, arguing that elite commitment to the PSNP needs to be understood in the context of shifts within Ethiopia's political settlement and the government's evolving development strategy. While food security had long been a priority for the ruling party, the 2002/03 food crisis-coming on the back of a series of other political shocks-was perceived as an existential crisis for the ruling coalition, prompting the incorporation of the PSNP into the existing rural development strategy. Foreign donors provided policy ideas and pushed for reform, but it was not until incentives flowing from the political settlement were favourable that elite commitment was secured. Even then, longstanding ideological commitments shaped the productive focus of the programme, ensuring consistency with the development strategy. While the removal of the PSNP is now unthinkable, the extent to which this represents a broader commitment to social protection remains an open question.
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