From Nobel Peace Prize Winner to War Criminal : A qualitative text analysis of the Abiy Ahmed administration’s discursive patterns of democratic backsliding

Sammanfattning: This study examines if the process of democratic backsliding is observable in the discursive patterns of a government that is the driving force of democratic erosion which can be useful when attempting to discern if a government has undemocratic ambitions. The actor analyzed to answer the research question is the government of Ethiopia. Three hypotheses have been developed based on Levitsky and Ziblatt’s model of democratic backsliding and from these, an analytical framework containing a set of questions has been developed. The questions have been used to systematically analyze the source material. This study found that the Ethiopian government framed those in law and law enforcement agencies and other opposition it perceives as adversaries as illegitimate actors while glorifying and legitimizing their own. In addition, the study found that the government argued that criticism directed at it not following laws or the constitution was either from an illegitimate source or not based on facts.