Democratic People's Party (Habasha)

Democratic People's Party ዴሞክራሲያዊ ሕዝባዊ ፓርቲ Dēmokrasīyawī Hezbawi Parti
President	Maryam Qaasim
Chairperson	Hailemariam Tewodros
Deputy Chairs	Demeke Andargachew Lemma Atomsa
Congress leader	Hanfare Arba
Founded	14 February 1958
Headquarters	150 Unity Avenue Gondar
Newspaper	The People's Voice
Student wing	Association of Democratic Students (Ditema)
Youth wing	Democratic Youth (Diwe)
Women's wing	Association of Democratic Women (Disema)
Union wing	National Confederation of Trade Unions (Bikimi)
Membership	2,939,160 (2017)
Ideology	Civil nationalism Avanti Reformism Developmentalism Secularism Multiracialism Radical centrism Big tent
Political position	Centre
International affiliation	None
Colors	Blue
Slogan	ከአንተ ጋር. ለእናንተ. (Mehare: 'With you. For you.')
Mekir Bet	266 / 360
County Assemblies	925 / 1,520
Governors	36 / 37
Election symbol
Party flag
Website
www.dhp.hb

The Democratic People's Party (Mehare: ዴሞክራሲያዊ ሕዝባዊ ፓርቲ, Dēmokrasīyawī Hezbawi Parti, abbreviation: DPP/DHP), informally and mostly known as Dihipi (ድሕፕ) is a major centrist political party in Habasha. Founded in 1958 as a social democratic underground political party opposing Menelik Dengel's authoritarian regime, the DPP has been the dominant political party in Habasha since 1970.

The DPP has held uninterrupted control of the Habashi government since the 1970 constituent elections, held immediately after the deposal of Menelik Dengel's dictatorship. The party failed to obtain a majority in the 1970 election, however, it obtained an absolute majority in the Mikiri Beti, the Habashi legislature, after the 1972 election. The party has returned an absolute majority of seats in every election since. Following the 2016 general election, the DPP has a supermajority in the Habashi legislature, with 271 seats out of 360. The party has been accused of using state instruments to perpetuate itself in power by censoring and harassment of critical opposition figures in the media and in Congress as well as of instrumentalising the electoral system to favour the DPP. However, the party's support is considered by international observers as broad and genuine, with election results held up to be fair. As of 2019, the DPP has not received less than 60% of the vote in any election since 1978.

Originally founded as a social democratic party with links to the underground trade union movement of the 1960s, the party has shifted towards the political centre since coming to power, having embraced economic liberalism. The party's ideology is generally considered to be vague and catch-all, focused on competent technocratic administration of the economy and society rather than concrete ideological principles. The DPP has extensive links with civil society through a variety of specific wings, the most important of which is the National Confederation of Trade Unions or Bikimi, Habasha's majoritary trade union. The current party chairman and Prime Minister of Habasha is Hailemariam Tewodros.

History

Foundation

The DHP was founded in 1957 by a group of social democratic university students opposed to Menelik Dengel's regime. The party founders, Amanuel Negassi, Hapte Sisay and Mikael Benti espoused democratic socialist ideas drawing heavily from Veblenism, emphasizing the vanguard role to be played by class-conscious technical experts in transforming Habashi society in a socialist direction.

According to the 1957 party program, drafted by Negassi and Sisay, the directing role of experts would be to direct the revolt of the Habashi proletariat and the large number of rural landless workers against the bureaucratic, Gondarian bourgeoisie and against the quasi-feudal rent-seeking landowners. The role of the technical middle-class was highlighted due to the backwater nature of the Habashi economy in the 1940s and 1950s. At the time, the vast majority of economic activity and employment was tied to various forms of quasi-feudal subsistence agriculture.

The influence of the Synni Technocratic Movement thinkers was very important on the origins of the Democratic People's Party, particularly after the success of the xx. The exile of Amanuel Negassi and Mikael Benti to Sidi Synnia reinforced this trend. After 1968, Negassi and Benti returned to Habasha. something about splits and later moderation

Ideology

The Democratic People's Party is a liberal, radical centrist party. The five pillars that structure the political ideology of the DPP are pragmatism, developmentalism , multiculuralism, secularism and social progressivism (or 'social modernisation').

State

According to the 2014 program, in the DHP's thinking, the State is conceptualized as the the fundamental actor in fostering social and economic modernisation of the country, and the sole appropriate conduit to pursue the party's programme. This line of thinking is rooted in the experience of the country's historical development in terms of state- and capacity-building.

The State is conceived as an apolitical meritocratic entity that is broadly representative of the country. This is to be accomplished by the adoption of ethnic quotas in civil service recruitment in order to correct centuries of Mehare chauvinism and its capture of the state.

The role of democratic institutions like the judiciary and the legislature is secondary to the DHP. They represent the preferred channel for governing the modernising State, as they provide avenues for citizen direct participation and legitimise the party and the state's objectives. However, particularly under Desta Yaqob's leadership, the party embraced markedly anti-democratic precepts, underscoring the existence of democratic institutions as an instrument, not an end in the party's set of ideological precepts.

Within the DHP's ideology, the actual operation of the state is driven by technical expertise in their respective areas. This translates into the broad independence of the civil service and the co-opting of technical and academic experts to run the economic ministries within the Council of Ministers. In order to advance the goal of expert-driven governance, the DHP has set up a large number of consultative bodies, involving interest groups and experts as well as so-called policy-specific working groups formed by highly-specialised civil servants, members of academia, civil society representatives and occasionally, foreign experts.

Economic policy

The DHP's economic policy draws heavily from the xx, which seeks to maximise technical advancement as its end goal, albeit adapted to the circumstances of Habasha's historical under-development.

The DHP policy pursues capacity-building in the form of technical and educative advancement to propel economic development in order to transform Habasha into a developed economy and a 'modern country'. Compared to the xx, the DHP's economic policy deemphasizes the role of cooperatives. Beginning in 1980, the party official economic policy broadly aligns with the concept of state-sponsored capitalism and 'inclusive growth' to achieve both economic growth and social equality. The original poverty of Habasha led to the adoption of export-led growth practices, as opposed to the more commonplace import substitution system common in Bahia.

The welfare state plays an integral part of the ideology of the party and of the strategy of socially-inclusive growth consisting on investment in social infrastructure in the name of long-term economic efficiency and social equity. The party's welfare policies have been identified as nominally pursuing a neocorporatist and dirigiste strategy, characterized by the existence of close ties to large national companies. The country's hegemonic trade union, Bikimi is officially affiliated with the DHP and also plays a major role in determining social and economic policies, although it has been criticized as too close to power and too complacent.

Multiculturalism

Habasha is a highly diverse country, in ethnic, religious and linguistic terms. Successive regimes have responded to this diversity by imposing the social dominance of the Sotirian Mehare plurality in the country, in the form of Mehare chauvinism, closely identified with both Menelik Dengel and Imperial Habasha. Albeit the DHP was founded by middle-class Mehares, the party's programme calls for the management of the country's multicultural diversity through 'diversity management' or 'diversity governance' initiatives.

The DHP's state goal is to to build a multicultural secular society. According to the 2014 party program, Habasha's diversity has to be channelled through its institutions, in the form of the creation of a meritocratic, national elite that reflects the country's ethnic and religious make-up. This is to be accomplished through the use of quotas and other positive discrimination initiatives. According to the DHP, the attainment of economic prosperity and secularization will also result in the diminishment of the importance of ethnic and religious ties.

Critics argue that the DPP's insistence of multicultural and ethnic unity has served as an excuse to pursue authoritarian policies to repress dissent on the ground of damaging ethnic and religious harmony. Both Desta Yaqob and Mebratu Mubashshir pursued anticlerical campaigns against Alydianism and Irsad's social role that violated human rights and resulted in the destruction of cultural heritage sites. Likewise, during the Medri Bahri Insurgency (1967-2005), the successive DPP government's heavy-handed approach saw the continuous use of martial law and the regular violation of human rights by the Habashi military.

Progressivism

Social progressivism and feminism play a key role in the party's social modernisation strategy.

The party's adoption of gender equality as a medium-term goal fits within the logic of national capacity-building. According to Hailemariam Tewodros, "it makes no sense for women to be excluded from society, the economy. By excluding half of the country, we exclude half the talent, half the ability".

Organisation

The 150 Unity Plaza in Gondar are the national headquarters of DPP.

The Democratic People's Party is organised along democratic centralist lines, around its Central Executive Committee (CEC, xx). The CEC acts as a permanent decision-making, executive organ, taking all major policy-making decisions. These decisions are later endorsed by the party's deliberative bodies.

The DPP is dominated by its cadres. Cadres are selected ordinary party members who carry out the majority of the party's work. About 300 cadres are nominated every year. Cadres are typically selected after the recommendation from party officers, deputies or local office-holders from the party. After the recommendation, nominated cadre candidates need to pass a process of three interviews designed to gauge their commitment to their party and their professional ability to undertake the party's work. If successfully completed, an ordinary party member becomes a cadre. The current number of cadres is unknown, as the DPP has never released the figures.

The Democratic People's Party is located at the heart of a network of neo-corporatist and economic institutions that establish its connection with civil society, the business world as well as the labour movement. The importance of these organisations in the Habashi society has contributed significantly to the party's uninterrupted political dominance, as they serve both as a conveyor for the party's message and useful tool for the recruitment of qualified personnel drawn from professional and labour milieus. Some of these institutions, like the xx investment fund also provide the party with considerable economic funds that are unavailable to all other parties, and which place the party as a significant economic actor on its own right.

National Congress

The DPP National Congresses are held every three years. The National Congress is formed by 1,850 members elected by the party's cadres as well as representatives of the party's various affiliated civic society organisations, known as 'party wings', such as the DPP female organisation (Disema) or the DPP university students' union, Ditema. These members are elected by the regional and local sections of the party. Members of the leadership of the various party-affiliated entities also have a right to stand, as do ministers and party parliamentarians.

The National Congress acts as the main legislative body of the party. Only through majority votes in the triannual National Congresses can amendments to the party's manifesto and party statutes be adopted. Likewise, the National Congress selects two-thirds of the members of the CEC (as the other third is appointed through co-option) as well as the entirety of the party's National Board. In practice, however, the Congresses are perceived as a rubber stamp. The control of the regional leadership over the selection of candidates to the Congress and in turn the control of the CEC over the regional leadership means that there is little ground for disagreements. Instead, Congresses are meant to be a show of party unity around its leadership and the leadership's project.

National Board

The National Board is a permanent body consisting of 50 to 75 members selected by the party's National Congress. The Board acts as a stand-in decision-making body that replaces the National Congress in between its sessions. The members of the board typically consist of the 17 members of the CEC, the parliamentary party leadership and the party's national leadership - its President, Chairperson and Deputy Chairs. To them, a number of members are appointed from the various regional party federations in order to reflect Habasha's ethnic and religious makeup within the party's upper echelons.

The National Board is divided into 10 sub-committees, each headed by a Secretary and their staff. These 10 committees are tasked with major organic matters like candidate selection, internal discipline, external communications or community outreach.

Central Executive Committee

The Central Executive Committee (xx, abbreviated as CEC, xx) is the main executive organ of the Democratic People's Party. The CEC is formed by 17 members. Of them, two thirds who are elected by the DPP National Congress every three years (and re-elected indefinitely). The remaining third is co-opted into the CEC by the other members every six years. The co-opted members must be members of the parliamentary party or belong to the membership of one of the party's wings. The majority of CEC members are also cabinet members. The internal discussions and votes taken prior to adopting policy-making decisions are secret.

The CEC is headed by the party's Chairperson. The Chairperson is elected in every National Congress and seats as the de facto eighteenth member of the Central Executive Committee, acting as an arbitrator and primus inter pares. The referee role of the Chair was enhanced under Amanuel Negassi and Mebratu Mubashshir. The more authoritarian governing style of Desta Yaqob meant that most decisions were taken by an informal camarilla formed by Yaqob and his closest associates and later endorsed by the CEC. Under Hailemariam Tewodros, the Executive Committee is reported to have returned to a more open atmosphere of discussion.

The Central Executive Committee operates under majority voting rules. In practice, however, most decisions are taken through consensus.

Party Wings

Immediatly following the overthrow of Menelik Dengel in 1970, the Democratic People's Party began to expand its presence in society by ...

Leaders

List of Presidents

• Hapte Sisay (1968-1971)
• Dahir Riyale Kahin (1971-1977)
• Megersa Mamo (1977-1980)
• Kinfe Zenawi (1980-1986)
• Amanuel Negassi (1986-1987)
• Ayenew Bitewelign (1987, interim)
• Fetlework Gebregziabher (1987-1993)
• Addisalem Balema (1993-2000)
• Gebru Berhe (2000-2003)
• Minase Junedin (2003-2006)
• Hirut Woldemariam (2006, interim)
• Aisha Mubashshir Mussa (2006-2012)
• Maryam Qaasim (2012-incumbent)

List of Chairpersons

No	Portrait	Name (birth and death)	Term of office		Time in office
1		Amanuel Negassi ኧማኑኤል ኔጋሲ (16 June 1922 – 8 March 1987)	20 April 1958	24 September 1984	26 years, 5 months, 5 days
2		Mebratu Mubashshir ሜብራቱ ሙባሽሺር (20 May 1927 – 30 December 2009)	24 September 1984	17 August 1990	5 years, 10 months, 25 days
3		Desta Yaqob ደስታ ያኮብ (18 July 1939 – )	17 August 1990	18 March 2006	15 years, 7 months, 2 days
4		Hailemariam Tewodros ኃይለማሪያም ቴዎድሮስ (3 March 1955 – )	19 March 2006	Incumbent	12 years, 11 months, 12 days

List of Congress leaders

• xx (??-??)
• xx (1994-2004)
• xx (2004-2006)
• xx (2006-2014)
• Hanfare Arba (2014-incumbent)