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Post-Taliban State-Building in Afghanistan

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Post-Taliban State-Building in Afghanistan Post-Taliban State-Building in Afghanistan The State Governmental Design at the National Level and the Role of Democratic Provincial Councils in Decentrali- zation at the Sub-National Level Haqmal Daudzai Dissertation completed in fulfilment of the requirement for the de- gree of a Doctor of Social Sciences (Dr. rer. Pol) from the Faculty of Law, Economics and Social Sciences at the University of Erfurt. 25.11.2019 First Reader: Prof. Dr. Frank Ettrich Second Reader: Dr. habil. Christian Wagner urn:nbn:de:gbv:547-201900273 1 Erklärung “Ich erkläre hiermit, dass ich die vorliegende Arbeit ohne unzuläs- sige Hilfe Dritter und ohne Benutzung anderer als der angegebenen Hilfsmittel angefertigt habe; die aus fremden Quellen wörtlich oder inhaltlich übernommenen Stellen habe ich kenntlich gemacht, bei Verwendung eigener Vorarbeiten (Veröffentlichungen und Qualifi- kationsarbeiten) habe ich auf diese hingewiesen. Bei der Auswahl und Auswertung des Materials sowie be der Her- stellung des Manuskripts habe ich Unterstützungsleistungen von folgenden Personen erhalten: 1. Frau Anna Willman 2. Frau Parwana Khogiani 3. Herr Muneer Ahmad Daudzai Weitere Personen waren an der geistigen Herstellung der vorliegen- den Arbeit nicht beteiligt. Insbesondere habe ich nicht die Hilfe ei- nes Promotionsberaters in Anspruch genommen. Dritte haben von mir weder unmittelbar noch mittelbar geldwerte Leistungen für Ar- beiten erhalten, die im Zusammenhang mit dem Inhalt der vorge- legten Dissertation stehen. Die Arbeit wurde bisher weder im Inland noch im Ausland in glei- cher oder ähnlicher Form einer anderen Prüfungsbehörde als Dis- sertation vorgelegt.“ „Ich erkläre hiermit, dass die Dissertation in der vorligenden oder einer ähnlichen Fassung oder ein Teil hieraus keiner anderen Hoch- schule zu Erlangung des Doktorgrads vorgelegen hat, und dass sie oder Teile daraus nicht bereits Gegenstand eines sons- tigen Prüfungsverfahrens waren“ dass sie bzw. nachfolgend aufgeführte Teile daraus Gegen- stand des folgenden Prüfungsverfahrens waren“ 2 Acknowledgments This Ph.D. dissertation owes a lot to the contributions of my beloved family, instructors, and friends. Foremost, I would like to conduct my sincere appreciation to my academic supervisors, Prof. Dr. Frank Ettrich, late Prof. Dr. Dietmar Herz and Dr. habil. Christian Wagner for their tireless academic guidance and moral support throughout this research project. Taking the extremely hazard situations in Afghanistan into consideration, I owe extensive gratitude to my all dear family members and friends who made the field research of this dissertation possible. My special appreciations go to my dear uncle, Eng. Hassan Nawab in Herat province, and dear friends: Mirwais Arab in Bamyan, Nazar Hamdard in Balkh, Mustafa Manavi in Kandahar, Hewad Khogiani and Jahangir Khan Khogiani in Nangrahar and Eng. Hameed Muneeb Ibramkhil in Kabul province, for their warmth and for accompanying me and facilitating accommodations and contacts during the field research. I would also like to thank my sister-in-law Parwana Khogiani and dear friend Muneer Ahmad Daudzai for investing their time and energy in transcribing part of the recorded interviews into Pashtu and Dari languages. I am also grateful to Abdul Hameed Sahak, a dear friend and at the time director of the Independent Commission for Overseeing and Implementation of the Constitution (ICOIC) for his constant encouragement and for providing access to necessary documents and laws in Afghanistan for this research. I would also like to thank Dr. Patricia Omidian and Nina Joy Lowrance, who have always been a sincere source of support and who put me into contact with a great scholar, editor, and author of several books, Ms. Anna Willman. I owe immense appreciation to Ms. Anna Willman not only for her contribution in English correction but also for her critical feedback and insightful comments on the contents of this dissertation. 3 This research project also owes special thanks to the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung/Foundation (KAS) for providing generous financial stipends and academic seminars during the last four years. Last but not least I am obliged to my dear mother, father, wife and siblings, for their unconditional love, patience, and prayers throughout this research project. Indeed, without their support and encouragement, this Ph.D. dissertation would not have come into being. 4 Abstract This research endeavors to critically study the state-building inter- vention in Afghanistan since the collapse of the Taliban regime in late 2001. By analyzing field interviews collected from six large Af- ghan provinces, this dissertation, in particular, explores an alterna- tive state governmental design at the central level, and examines the role of elected provincial councils for decentralization at the sub- national level in Afghanistan. Since the Bonn conference in 2001, the Afghan ethnopolitical elites are divided between the Pashtuns for a heavy centralized presidential state system, and the non-Pashtuns (mainly Tajik, Hazara, and Uz- bek) for semi-presidential parliamentarism, among them some advo- cates for parliamentary federalism. While the 2004 Afghan constitu- tion adopted a heavy unitary centralized state system. In practice, it continued an ethnopolitical elite power-sharing government agreed upon at the December 2001 Bonn conference. The findings of this study reveal that implementing a non-ethnic-party and merit-based democratically elected unitary government as envisioned in the 2004 Afghan constitution, would neither be accepted by the various ethnic groups and parties nor would it be backed by the regional and inter- national partner countries. A complete federal option also fails to have majority Afghan support, nor is it suitable for a geographically and socio-politically complex, and economically weak Afghanistan. The National Unity Government (NUG) model in place since 2014 – a somewhat semi-presidential system – has not been successful, and the lack of a strong political party system also weakens the ar- guments for adopting semi-presidentialism. If peace, social justice, political stability, good governance, economic development, and na- tional integration is the optimum goal for system change, Afghans need to adopt a unitary ethnic grand-coalition at the center, (a presi- dent with three vice-presidents with no constitutional pre-specifica- tion of ethnic status for these executive posts) and a moderate decen- tralized administration at the sub-national level. 5 This dissertation also finds that the Afghan elected Provincial Councils (PC) in place since 2005 are constitutionally week and in some instances dominated by warlords and drug mafias. Nevertheless, they have proved significant to local governance in rural Afghanistan, improving political awareness, the mobilization and participation of women, government legitimacy, democracy, and economic development. If the Afghan government ever managed to make peace with the Taliban, curbed warlordism and corruption, then for implementing decentralization, the Afghan PCs are the most feasible democratic institution to build on. 6 List of Acronyms AISS Afghansitan Institute for Stratigic Stidudies AREU Afghanistan Research Eveluation Unit CDC Community Development Council CEO Chief Executive Officer CIA Central Intelligence Agency CLJ Counstitutional Loya Jirga DC District Council DDR Disarmament Demobilization and Reintigeration IDLG Independent Directorate of Local Governance ISAF International Security Assistant Force ISI Inter-services Intelligence MP Member of Parliament NATO North Atlantic Treaty Organizationa NUG National Unity Government OECD Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development PC Provincial Council PDC Provincial Development Council SNTV Single Non-transferable Vote USSR United of Sovit Socilist Rebpublic UN United Nation US United States VC Village Council 7 Glossary Fiqh Islamic Jurisprudence Khan/Malik/Big Traditional community leader Jihad Holy War Jirga/Shura Consultative Council Islamic-Ummah Islamic-Community Meshrano-Jirga The Upper House of the Afghan Parliament Mujahedeen Holy Warriors or Freedom Fighters Pashtunwali The Pashtun ethnic code of conduct Sharia The Islamic Law Sharwal Mayor Shura-e-Mili The National Assembly of Afghanistan Wali Provincial Governor Wolesi Jirga The Lower House of the Afghan Parliament Woluswal District Governor 8 Table of Contents ERKLÄRUNG................................................................................ 2 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ............................................................. 3 ABSTRACT .................................................................................... 5 LIST OF ACRONYMS ................................................................. 7 GLOSSARY.................................................................................... 8 TABLE OF CONTENTS .............................................................. 9 CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION .............................................. 13 1.1 RESEARCH HYPOTHESIS, QUESTIONS AND SIGNIFICANCE: .... 18 1.2 METHODOLOGY ..................................................................... 23 1.3 AN OVERVIEW OF THE LITERATURE: ..................................... 29 1.4 THE STRUCTURE OF THE THESIS ............................................ 37 CHAPTER 2: PART-I, STATE-BUILDING CONCEPTS AND DEFINITIONS ............................................................................. 42 2.1 STATE-BUILDING AND ITS RELEVANT CONCEPTS ................. 42 2.2 WHAT IS
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