In the 1970s, Ethiopia's Marxist regime attempted one of the largest social engineering experiments in African history. Millions of peasants lost control of their land. Hundreds of thousands were forcibly relocated.
A decade later, up to a million people were dead.
After seizing power in 1974, the Derg abolished private land ownership and organised peasants into state-controlled Peasant Associations and producer cooperatives. Farmers were compelled to pool their land, livestock and labour under collective management. At the same time, the regime launched large-scale resettlement programmes, forcibly relocating over half a million people from the northern highlands to southern and western regions.
Both policies destroyed agricultural incentives. Without ownership or the right to keep the fruits of their labour, peasants had little reason to work hard or invest in the land. Production collapsed. The regimeâs rigid central planning and forced grain deliveries made the situation worse. When drought hit in the early 1980s, the country was already in economic freefall.
The consequences were horrific. The 1983â85 famine killed as many as one million people. While drought played a role, the famine was massively worsened by collectivisation, forced resettlement, and the governmentâs refusal to allow free movement of food and people. Entire communities were uprooted, often with lethal results.
Ethiopiaâs experience under the Derg offers a stark lesson. Private property is not an abstract concept that enlightened governments can âabolishâ in pursuit of equality or progress. It is the foundation of production, individual responsibility and ultimately human survival itself.
Not a welcome trend. In Germany over the last 20 years the public sector grew by about as many workers as the self-employed cohort shrank. This is demographics in action: the gigantic German Boomer cohort retires (and therefore loses self-employed workers) and at the same time increases demand for care jobs. A trend like this should be accompanied by active efforts to shrink government. That didnât happen.