Afghanistan’s Political Development Dilemma: The Centralist State Versus a Centrifugal Society

S. Yaqub Ibrahimi

Journal of South Asian Development, 2019, vol. 14, issue 1, 40-61

Abstract: This article examines how a troubled relationship between a centralist state and centrifugal society has posed a serious challenge to state-building in Afghanistan. Drawing on ‘state–society relations’ theory, the article examines how this persistent obstacle has repeatedly interfered with efforts to consolidate a sovereign state in post-Taliban Afghanistan. The article investigates the historical roots of the uneven relationship between the state and society by comparing Musahiban ’ s state conservatism with the People’s Democratic Party of Afghanistan’s attempted social transformation strategy. The article develops a new framework for the analysis of state-building where state policies and social behaviours are considered mutually significant in the state-building process. Moreover, by comparing the two major state-building strategies, the article investigates the implication of pre-war approaches in the post-2001 context.

Keywords: Political development; state-building; Afghanistan; state–society relations; state conservatism; social transformation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:soudev:v:14:y:2019:i:1:p:40-61

DOI: 10.1177/0973174119839843

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