S8: External and negotiated state building Flashcards
What were the key efforts of Liberal-state building? (strategy of institutionalisation) 2002-2004
- New institutions (some from scratch) parliament, judicially system, banking industry, communication system, media
-Progress on legislations, institutions, automation
-More women in government
-Freedom of media and speech
-Return of many people and growing optimism about country
What happed during the liberal-state building period despite all the optimism?
- Bonn agreement did not create a mechanism to liberal peace template (messy and vague compromises)
-It included iliberal and non-democratic dimensions
-It incorporated Jihadists, royalists and technocrats who never got along
-Each group had different sources of legitimacy
-Strongmen(powerful local leaders) were incorporated and offered government positions
What happened during elite contestation period (2002-2004)
-Technocrats contested the elite postion. Mainly between Pashtun technocrats led by Karzai and Mujahideen mainly the Northern Alliance.
-Contestation was shaped by international support, shifting decisively to Karzai and allies.
-Technocrat led ministries received more aid and assistance than the factional elites.
Strategy of de-institutionalisation after 2005
-Marginalisation of technocrats: shift in the nature of the political settlement and power balance. The balance shifted from technocrats and royalists back to jihadists.
The government turned to Jihadi ethno-regional networks. Of 27 ministries 4 were lead by militia leaders. of 32 provincial governors, 27 were former commanders from the civil war era & closely associated with the warlords.
What is Patrimonialism and Neo-patrimonialism?
Patrimonialism: system where the user uses his own households and followers as his administrative staff members and uses the resources for own benefit.
Neo-patrimonialism: State is considered property of the rules who rules with the help of ‘clients’ that are paid off for their support, mostly by being put as leaders of institutions.
Main difference: role of institutions and formal/informal networks.
Creation of a patrimonial state (2009-2014)
-Karzai relied more on informal institutions, structure and networks than formal ones. He created a patrimonial state with a patronage network of personal clients bound to him (neo-pat.)
-Distributed rents and co-opted powerbrokes in the state structure to buy loyalty.
A.k.a. recipe for disaster
What were the consequences of the co-option policies?
-sustained order, but limited acces to order and it was vulnerable to corruption.
-Institution building was weakened.
-Power bases of political elites was strengthened by allowing acces to rents (power & resources)
-State extractive capacity has been weakened (by giving political elites more power)
-Karzai’s reluctance towards taxation to sustain order lead to increased tax evasion and avoidance
Confrontations with US (2009-2014)
-Tensions between Karzai and the USA grew, which caused him to lose external support.
-USA tried to stop Karzai from damaging his governments’ legitimacy
What where the factors that lead to tension with the USA (2009-2014?) both perspectives:
USA:
-USA criticised Karzai government over corruption
-Fraudulent presidential election in 2009 and parliamentary election in 2010
Karzai:
-Karzai accused US of engineering his removal from the power
-Criticised US/Foreign forces for air strikes, night raids, targeting civilians
-Taliban’s safe have was in Pakistan not in Afghanistan
International Intervention & Patrimonialism (2009-2014)
-Long history on of dependence on international aid
-Didn’t target institution building, but mostly favoured power brokers via contracts
-PRT (Provincial Reconstruction Team) created a parallel state
-Aid money (contracts) turned out to be a source of rent generation / negotiation for powerful elites.
What were the consequences of: International Intervention & Patrimonialism (2009-2014)?
-Power holders established dominance over provincial affairs
-Aid (contracts) became a source of revenue for power holders
-Shadow economy
Ashraf Ghani and the National Unity Government (2014 –2019)
!Externally imposed political settlement
-2014 elections had disputed results, both parties claimed to be winner.
-USA intervened and created a coalitional government
-Ghani would fire abdullah’s ministers, while abdullah would call them to return for work. Ghani bypassed Abdullah his laws.
-Technocrats gained lots of power in this government, they also removed Karzai’s clients from power basis. These were mostly young people and Ghani placed these purposefully to gain power.
What were the ramifications of the disrupted political settlement?
-Challenged the patronage network, disrupted rent seeking and self-reliance strategy by Ghani undermined stability and relative order
-Frequents changes/firings of government officials led to protests and security posts falling to the Taliban.
How did the disrupted political settlement paved the way to collapse of the Afghan government?
-Government had ambiguous position on the Taliban
-Power was over centralized and exclusionary &disrupting policies of Ghani.
-The powerbrokes in the north were weakened, who fought against Taliban in 1990s could have helped Ghani, but were not strong enough anymore.
-Weakened elites from Northern Alliance could not resist Taliban anymore
