Research Article
Beyond "Special Interest": Reconciling Historical Claims, Territorial Rights, and Political Economy of Urban Governance in Finfinnee/Addis Ababa
Efa Tadesse Debele*
Issue:
Volume 10, Issue 2, December 2026
Pages:
48-59
Received:
23 August 2026
Accepted:
5 September 2026
Published:
14 October 2026
DOI:
10.11648/j.ipa.20261002.11
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Abstract: The intersection of municipal governance, state-building, and regional territorial rights in multinational federations frequently generates deep institutional, spatial, and political-economic friction. In Ethiopia, this friction is rooted in 19th-century imperial state expansion, which initiated the systematic displacement of indigenous Tulema Oromo communities to establish the garrison town (katama) at Finfinnee (Addis Ababa). Today, under Article 49 of the 1995 FDRE Constitution, Finfinnee/Addis Ababa occupies a precarious dual constitutional status: operating simultaneously as an autonomous, self-governing federal seat and the legal capital of Oromia Regional State. While Article 49(5) mandates that Oromia’s "special interest" regarding administrative services, resource utilization, and joint infrastructure shall be respected, decades of legislative inaction and uncoordinated peri-urban spatial expansion have exacerbated regional anxieties over territorial integrity, uncompensated land dispossession, and cultural erasure. Drawing on qualitative empirical data—including in-depth interviews with 50 key informants, consisting of political actors, scholars, and community leaders analyzed through the Position, Interest, and Need (PIN) framework—this study investigates the political economy of urban governance through the analytical lenses of land tenure, metabolic resource extraction, and jurisdictional duality. Findings reveal a fundamental structural polarization between federalist priorities of civic multi-ethnic municipal self-rule and regional demands for constitutional restitution, indigenous spatial rights, and territorial integrity. The capital's metabolic dependence on Oromia's natural ecosystems (such as water supply reservoirs), alongside the export of negative environmental externalities (such as municipal waste), creates severe socio-economic asymmetries. Moving beyond zero-sum legalistic debates, this article evaluates actionable policy frameworks to reconcile historical grievances with inclusive urban citizenship. To resolve these structural tensions, the study proposes concrete institutional mechanisms: transitioning from the vague "special interest" clause to a formal shared jurisdictional governance model; enacting statutory anti-displacement land protections and joint spatial master-planning protocols; establishing transparent fiscal equity mechanisms (including Payment for Ecosystem Services and land-lease restitution funds); and embedding functional linguistic rights and official dual-naming conventions (Finfinnee/Addis Ababa) within municipal administration.
Abstract: The intersection of municipal governance, state-building, and regional territorial rights in multinational federations frequently generates deep institutional, spatial, and political-economic friction. In Ethiopia, this friction is rooted in 19th-century imperial state expansion, which initiated the systematic displacement of indigenous Tulema Orom...
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