Does Multi-ethnic or Multi-national Federalism Work for Ethno-Culturally Heterogeneous Societies?
The answer depends on whom you ask. If you ask many citizens of India, Ethiopia, Canada, Switzerland, and Belgium, they would say yes. Many people in other countries in Africa, Eastern Europe, and Asia are resistant to the idea of accommodating national and ethnic communities through federal institutions. For them, federalism in general, and multi- ethnic federalism in particular, is a dirty word and a detestable phrase. For the ICG (Ethiopia: Ethnic Federalism And Its Discontents, African Report No. 153, 4 September 2009) and vociferous Ethiopian Diaspora in US America, Europe and elsewhere, multi-ethnic federalism is nothing but a recipe for a violent eruption of endless inter-communal conflicts leading eventually to the disintegration or dissolution of the Ethiopian state, an evil project deliberately and maliciously pursued by the TPLF/EPRDF party and government toward that end, so goes their pathetic stance. In Western Europe, the French are hostile to federalism. Americans, those
