Overview

This book explores whether the legal and political institutions of Afghanistan were able to incorporate diverse ethnic groups into the political process. Ethnic accommodation has gained central stage in the literature on institutional design and democratic consolidation. However, some divided societies are more explored than others, and Afghanistan is one understudied country that is critically important for testing and improving our theories of institutional design in a democratizing, plural society. This work examines the Constitution of 2004 and those provisions of electoral laws and political party laws that together devised Afghan political institutions including those of the presidential system, unitary government, electoral systems as well as the party system. It argues that due to their incongruence in design and effects, the Afghan political institutions failed to fully accommodate ethnic groups in the political process. This book adopts a holistic approach, while also paying careful attention to the details of each of the individual pieces of political institutions designed by the Constitution of 2004. Taken together, this approach yields insights into the boundaries and interactions of institutional design and how their interactions hinder or advance ethnic accommodation in varying contexts. The book will be essential reading for academics, researchers and policy makers interested in constitutional law and politics.

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9780367715410

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Reviews

"""This is a first-rate application of political science and institutional theory to a very important — but curiously under-studied — case, which helps to clarify much about why Afghanistan's democratic experiment ended as it did."" — Benjamin Reilly, East-West Center ""This book offers an unbiased and honest detailing of Afghan governance. If you want to think through what the future of government in Afghanistan might look like, start here."" — Jason Criss Howk, Director of Global Friends of Afghanistan ""In his fresh and astute study, Bashir Mobasher combines a deep understanding of his homeland and political institutions to explain why democracy didn’t blossom in Afghanistan. His analysis uncovers how poor institutional design set up Afghanistan for failure despite its people’s longing for stability and cross-ethnic politics. Vital reading is for those who want to get beyond hoary cliches about Afghanistan to unpack what happened along with what to avoid in future efforts to reconstruct fractured polities."" — David Lublin, American University"

Author Information

Dr. Bashir Mobasher is a postdoctoral fellow at the American University’s Department of Sociology and a lecturer of political science at the American University of Afghanistan (AUAF).

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