The Struggle for Democracy in Afghanistan
Is democracy the solution for a long lasting political and social stability in Afghanistan?
There are many different political systems that have been formed and tested over centuries such as communism, dictatorship, monarchy, authoritarian, empires and democracy. Whilst democracy may be best form of government for most societies because it has accountability and participation at its core, it can fail in nations that do not have the structure and foundation to implement democracy. For the latter, it had to go through a long process to become a democracy (the rule of people), this process has changed over the last two centuries. Sovereign states adopted democracy as the main political system, but this process in the modern democracy changed throughout history by experiences and the evolution of democracy as the renowned democratic theorist Robert Dahl explains in his book Democracy and Its Critics that “since the theory and practices of modern democracy have resulted not only from the legacy of popular government in ancient city-states but also from other historical experiences, both evolutionary and revolutionary, they are amalgam of elements that do not fully cohere” (Dahl, 13).
Taking into consideration that the implementation of democracy varies in different nations, this essay will examine representative democracy before concluding that to develop a comprehensive account of the factors that predict whether democracy is the best way to organise societies it is necessary to study recent examples of its implementation. I will also consider the successes and failures of democracy, whether it benefits society and if there are any alternative forms of government.
History of Democratisation in Afghanistan
Post-conflict democracy and democratic processes have only recently been established in Afghanistan with the military intervention of United States along with its NATO allies in 2001 after the deadly terrorist attacks of 9/11 that shook the world. Under the Bonn Agreement, Afghanistan held its first presidential and parliamentary elections which democratically elected Hamid Karzai as the President and he went on to win a second term in 2009. Democracy has just begun in Afghanistan. But, let us go back in history to analyse certain events that led Afghanistan to become the safe havens for terrorist groups such as Al-Qaeda and the Taliban.
King Mohammad Zahir Shah who reigned for 40 years in Afghanistan being deposed after his cousin and prime minister Mohammad Daoud Khan seizes power in 1973, he declares himself as the president of Afghanistan. He was considered to have introduced democracy in the country because of his modern views and policies. He transformed the country from a monarchy to a republic; as he was caught up in the centre of cold war between US and USSR; the hope for democracy disappeared after a bloody revolution of 1978 by the communist People’s Democratic Part of Afghanistan. That led to assassination after assassination until Soviets invaded the country, after the withdrawal of Soviets and collapse of a communist government, the country fell in the hands of Mujahiddin (freedom fighters) who then formed the Islamic State of Afghanistan. In 1992, the civil war led the country to the control of Taliban from 1996 to 2001 as Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan.
The five years of the vicious regime of Taliban is considered to be the dark days of Afghanistan in which none of the democratic principles were applied. Hence, democracy was born in Afghanistan in 2004 for the first time through democratic elections beginning democratisation in Afghanistan as the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan. But how we define democracy in Afghanistan and how it helped the country to flourish after the US & NATO military intervention in 2001? Although modern democracy is a western invention, it varies in its forms and how it is practiced in different nations.
The right to vote and elections
Fundamentally, religion and tradition play important roles in forming a democratic state in countries like Afghanistan. Therefore, as religion plays a significant role, it has been a challenge for democracy to work side by side with religion and cultural traditions. A research that indicates this fact was carried out by Afghanistan Research and Evaluation Unit in May, 2011, which stated that “there is strong support among many Afghans for people’s right to select their representatives through elections. In many people’s minds, these desirable aspects of representation are separated from wider connotations of the English word “democracy,” which is often seen as an imported system of Western social values and ideals that threatens people’s identities as both Afghans and Muslims”. The reason why people favour democracy, especially in terms of representation is that people have suffered under authoritarian forms of government in Afghanistan and are desperate for democratic values in their daily lives. Democracy has therefore organised society in Afghanistan since its formation in 2001 as it given ordinary Afghans a voice and access to their fundamental right of participation in elections. People elect members of the parliament, freely and the right comes with a condition of being a citizen in order to be eligible to vote. In September 28th, 2019 Afghanistan witnessed its fourth presidential elections, this means that one of the key factors to the legitimization of government is election and it is now on the verge to sustain its position. The international community and Afghanistan are still working hard to establish elections free from intimidation and violence and it is a long way to go.
Freedom of Speech
Another fundamental proponent of democracy is freedom of speech in Afghanistan. The country’s press and media sector has developed drastically including print and traditional media as well as social media as the main source of information to the people of Afghanistan and a platform to hold politicians to account. Government acted responsively in according to democratic value, although the government has not provided sufficient support for media sector but it has definitely cleared the path for its growth within the country. On the other hand, the Afghan government is being criticized for the ongoing threats against journalists. However, despite the fact that Afghanistan is a dangerous country for journalism but it has ensured their freedom more than the regional countries like Pakistan, Iran, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, China and India. According to 2019 World Press Freedom index, Afghanistan is ranked 121 from 180 countries with its short journey of democracy, it has taken a good position among other democratic nations mentioned in latter and freedom of speech has through the media has been upheld allowing people to feel like they have a say.
Equal Participation
Political and public participation plays an important role in whether democracy actually works and organises society. Without equal participation, democracy fails. The participation and representation of women in Parliament has been ranked 60 out of 192 countries by 2019 index by UN Women. We should praise this result as many of the democratic countries such as the United States of America, Canada or Greece have ranked very low in comparison. But, this participation comes with huge sacrifices women make in their daily lives including death and assassination threats, in order to balance the difference between men and women in a very patriarchal society.
Moreover, the participation of youth in government is also an indication of great participation of citizens in social and political affairs. Afghanistan has the youngest population in the world and is ranked 14 according to World Atlas with 51.4% of the population under 18 years old. However, Afghanistan is struggling to use the experience and skills of the young population to the benefit of the nation and this is because it suffers from an ongoing conflict with Taliban and other terrorist groups such as Daesh and Al-Qaeda. Also, due to an uncertain future, they tend to create mass exodus of youth or in other words brain drain of the country and last but not least lack of employment and facing challenges for placing the young labour into the job market.
However, when you look at practical democracy compared to the theory of democracy it becomes much more problematic as we see that power is centralised to the Presidential office and not localised. In fact, over the last decade, the country has suffered from corruption on a mass scale that has reduced the trust and confidence of Afghans and international donors who fund the development projects in Afghanistan. Therefore, organising society has become quite challenging and the Independent Election Commission of Afghanistan has failed in its transparency, because of many external involvements.
On the other hand, the country suffered a political deadlock in the controversial elections of 2014 that led to the establishment of National Unity Government and Chief Executive Office in Afghanistan. With splitting power between the Presidential Palace and the Chief Executive Office, the country survived a political collapse that may have resulted in a civil war. Furthermore, Hamdullah Mohib who is the current National Security Advisor wrote in an article in 2011 “Afghanistan is not ready for a centralized Western-style democracy, perhaps because it’s just not suited for the system created after the fall of the Taliban”. The country has suffered political instability and hence it can be concluded democracy has been symbolised in favour of the few and not the many.
Furthermore, the country is going through a fragile moment as people have lost their confidence on democracy because of the ethnic inclusiveness, lack of political will for establishment of transparency and responsiveness. Hence, obstacles for a practical democracy still exist and recently democrats fear the decline of democracy in the country and are looking for an alternative. Additionally, government in Afghanistan seems to be more of authoritarian than democratic because it has suppressed many of its political oppositions, political and civic activists and civil protests over the last four years. This has been because Afghanistan was not ready for democracy and the infrastructure was not in place and it lead to abuse of human rights in Afghanistan — the abuse has been done not only from the government itself but other politicians as well, whom are mainly called as warlords. The judiciary is not in that position to rule against them, because as mentioned earlier, corruption has deep rooted in these institutions.
Conclusion
In conclusion, after understanding the history of how democracy started to take shape in Afghanistan, the country is in better form and has organised the society after the fall of Taliban regime in Afghanistan. In addition, since the revolution of 1978, the people of Afghanistan suffered a lot as the regimes kept changing and it never had the opportunity to have a stable political structure and system. Hence, every regime led the country to a collapse and it has been the main reason behind the lack of democracy. Despite the many challenges that still exist, every election since 2004 is a victory for democracy.
For institutions to organise society in a larger scale through equal education of boys and girls, men and women’s participation in politics, in both parliamentary and presidential elections, citizens’ participation in the electoral process — it is democracy that build bridges between the public and the government. Therefore, I believe the only solution to the current instability is a democratic process to ensure the rights of its citizens and rule of law. It establishes a transparent, responsive and accountable government. A democratic government will invest on all of its citizens and will let them thrive and citizens will have a sense of responsibility towards their government. This sense of responsibility, therefore, not only ensures fundamental democratic values but contributes to the economic development of the country and individual growth will be ensured and equality will flourish in the country.
In summary, the success of democracy is far from assured in Afghanistan, we can celebrate the fact that it has organised its society very well from threats of internal separations and has ensured its sovereignty especially on foreign policies. It will take years for Afghanistan to be considered as a full democracy but we cannot ignore the fact that it is a young democracy and it has organised the society as a whole.
Works cited:
DAHL, A. ROBERT. Author ‘’Democracy and Its Critics’’ Book, Yale University Press, Publisher. July 1991, United States.
LOUGH, OLIVER. Writer ‘’Practicing Democracy in Afghanistan, Key Findings on Perceptions, Parliament and Elections’’ Research Paper, Afghanistan Research and Evaluation Unit, Publisher. May 2011, Afghanistan.
“2019 World Press Freedom Index.” RSF, https://rsf.org/en/ranking_table.
“Women in Politics: 2019.” UN Women, https://www.unwomen.org/en/digital-library/publications/2019/03/women-in-politics-2019-map.
Burton, James. “30 Countries With The Youngest Populations In The World.” WorldAtlas, 22 Jan. 2016, https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/the-youngest-populations-in-the-world.html.
Mohib, Hamdullah. “A Grassroots Democracy for Afghanistan.” Foreign Policy, 27 June 2011, https://foreignpolicy.com/2011/06/27/a-grassroots-democracy-for-afghanistan/.
