The purpose of this paper is to present a conceptual taxonomy of marginality resulting from two counterposed structural conditions within laissez-faire on the one hand and controlled markets on the other. Marginality is a complex condition of disadvantage that individuals and communities may experience because of vulnerabilities which may arise from unequal or inequitable environmental, ethnic, cultural, social, political and economic factors. A typology of marginality is based on two primary and two derivative forms. The primary forms are contingent and systemic. The derivative forms are collateral and leveraged. Contingent marginality is a condition that results from competitive inequality in which individuals and communities are put at a disadvantage because of the dynamics of the free market whose uncertain and stochastic outcomes affect them adversely. Systemic marginality is a socioeconomic condition of disadvantage created by socially constructed inequitable non-market forces of bias. Collateral marginality is a condition experienced by individuals or communities who are marginalized solely on the basis of their social and/or geographic proximity to individuals or communities that experience either contingent or systemic marginality. Leveraged marginality is a contingent or systemic disadvantage that people/communities are made to experience when their bargaining position in free markets is weakened by dominant stakeholders like transnational corporations which are able to leverage lucrative concessions by using the threat of alternative, often cheaper and marginalized (contingent or systemic) labour pools to which they can potentially take their business.
The Horn of Africa has become the most fragmented post-colonial region in Africa. The largest state in the region, Ethiopia, with its unequalled demographic and resource power lost one of its provinces to secession and the rest of the country became divided into ethnic enclosures called killiloch, which are federal states with tribal designation. The recitation of divisive counter-narratives on the history of the Ethiopian state by ethnically inspired governing and non-governing political elite has minimized the collective identity of Ethiopians leading to their decomposition into tribal groupings in killiloch with neo-tribal restrictive covenants that include the right of secession. The supporters of such divisions have touted the policies as emancipatory that are ostensibly designed to help in the self-determination of Ethiopia’s various nationalities and to govern their own local affairs under a form of dual federalism (exclusive states’ rights). The objective of this article is to reflect on the adverse consequences of dual federalism based on ethnic killils and to explore an alternative framework for cultural and functional integration of the Ethiopian state under the rubric of cooperative federalism.
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