This article offers a theoretical and empirical examination of Thandika Mkandawire’s model of an African developmental state. The driving question is: what does the Ethiopian experiment mean for Mkandawire’s model, and what broader lessons does it hold? The analysis focuses on the ideology of the Ethiopian ruling party (1991–2018) and a review of two policy documents on rural development and execution capacity-building. Developmentalist ideology, effective state capacity and relative autonomy of the state are observed in the Ethiopian case. The rural development policy aimed for structural transformation and achieved a modest result. At the same time, the execution capacity-building policy is a fascinating example of how the Ethiopian model defied the ‘institutional monocropping’ and ‘institutional monotasking’ approach of donor organisations by pursuing institution-building not as a technical but as a political mission. However, the Ethiopian experiment was not without limitations. The most drastic structural impasse was in the inherent contradiction between the sociocultural and ethnolinguistic-based federalism and the centralising drive of developmentalism. This created irreparable fractures within the ruling elite, which brought the developmentalism experiment to an end in 2018. This article argues that the Ethiopian case is a relevant example which demonstrates the vital features of the African developmental state that Mkandawire theorised and promoted.
