Establishing Local Government in Fragile States: Experimental Evidence from Afghanistan

Torsten Jochem, Ilia Murtazashvili and Jennifer Murtazashvili

World Development, 2016, vol. 77, issue C, 293-310

Abstract: International and domestic policy makers often promote elections to establish village government in fragile states. However, two additional options are available in such countries: formalization of self-governing village councils and formalization of community development councils (CDCs). We designed a survey experiment in Afghanistan that compares the consequences of elections to establish village councils to each alternative. We find that elections, and to a lesser extent formalization of CDCs, improve support for democracy, while formalization of customary councils improves support for reconciliation with the Taliban. Moreover, the consequences of transplanting elections are contingent on social norms and institutions supportive of democracy.

Keywords: local elections; community-driven development; state-building; liberal peacebuilding; self-governance; transplant effect; Afghanistan (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:wdevel:v:77:y:2016:i:c:p:293-310

DOI: 10.1016/j.worlddev.2015.08.025

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