Dams, Power, and State-Led Development: Situating Ethiopia’s Dams Boom

Tom Lavers*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Chapter in Book/Conference proceedingChapterpeer-review

Abstract

This introductory chapter provides an overview of the central arguments of the book, including that Ethiopia’s dams boom is symbolic of the successes and failures of Ethiopia’s ‘developmental state’. The chapter also situates the Ethiopian case within the context of three existing literatures, namely those on state-led development and the governance of the electricity sector; twenty-first-century dam building; and the political economy of energy transitions. In turn, the discussion draws on this existing literature to elaborate the multi-scalar analytical framework that guides the remainder of the book. In particular, this framework focuses on the material and ideational factors that underpin the elite cohesion, technical capacity, and financial resources required to plan and implement large dam construction. Moreover, the ability to secure these three factors is dependent on alignment of political dynamics across multiple scales from the global and regional to the national, sub-national, and local.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationDams, Power, and the Politics of Ethiopia’s Renaissance
EditorsLavers Tom
PublisherOxford University Press
Pages1-27
Number of pages27
ISBN (Electronic)9780191967573
ISBN (Print)9780192871213
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Jan 2024

Keywords

  • dams
  • Ethiopia
  • Multi-scalar
  • Political economy
  • Politics
  • Renewable energy transitions
  • State-led development

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