The Challenges to Nation-Building

in Afghanistan continues.....

The task of state building in Afghanistan involves the construction of a constitutional democratic republic that possesses effective control over its demarcated territory, sufficient administrative capacity to implement

coherent policies, and wide political legitimacy in the eyes of its citizens.

The viability of the new Afghan state depended on the Afghan civil society and other non-state actors to participate in and assist the process of democratization and governance reforms through better understanding and practice of their and citizen’s roles. A democratic process involving both state and non-state actors assumes some levels of an accurate, common understanding of social and political conditions. In

the absence of that understanding, information asymmetries between the

two can be exacerbated, producing costly political battles.

In 2001, virtually any nation in the world seemed to be a better candidate for democratization than Afghanistan. Over the previous three decades, Afghanistan had a series of autocratic governments (Zahir Shah monarchy, the Daoud autocracy, a communist state, the mujahideen regime) and the totalitarian regime of the Taleban. The nation’s social and economic infrastructure was totally devastated. More than a million people had died in the conflicts, in a nation of 25 million.

And millions fled the nation as refugees to Pakistan, Iran, the three neighbouring Central Asian states and also to Europe and America. Afghanistan probably had more landmines than any other nation in the world, restricting its landuse and killing and maiming the innocent. Afghanistan lacks many socio-economic factors identified with democratization, such as literacy, economic development, stability and an active civil society.

Hence progress towards developing democratic institutions will be a long

and challenging one. The challenges of political transition in Afghanistan

can be examined under the following categories:

To be continued....