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Democracy at LargeDemocracy Promotion, Local Participation, and Transnational Governmentality in Afghanistan

Democracy at Large: Democracy Promotion, Local Participation, and Transnational Governmentality... [Afghanistan—a country evoking images of poverty and mass migration, violence, and religious extremism to a Western audience—may seem a strange place to study the effects of democracy promotion. Yet Afghanistan is the destination of thousands of experts who conceive their endeavor within the framework of a struggle between the values of modernity (democracy, human rights, women’s empowerment, secular education, accountability, to mention but a few), the archaisms of tradition, and the corruption of the state system. Such an international involvement may recall to mind the presence of the Soviets in the 1980s who, in addition to their harsh military occupation, also implemented a development policy consisting of female emancipation, literacy campaigns, and land reform. But, more generally, Afghan history has been shaped recurrently by external actors. Building on the polity that the Pashtun tribes had created during their military advances of the mid-eighteenth century, modern Afghanistan came into being in the second half of the nineteenth century through the action of colonial powers. It is only at that time that the very name of the country was established, when the Russians and the British fixed its frontiers, making it a buffer state between their respective possessions in Central Asia and the Indian subcontinent.1] http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png

Democracy at LargeDemocracy Promotion, Local Participation, and Transnational Governmentality in Afghanistan

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References (13)

Publisher
Palgrave Macmillan US
Copyright
© Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Nature America Inc. 2012
ISBN
978-1-349-44124-2
Pages
147 –167
DOI
10.1057/9781137032768_7
Publisher site
See Chapter on Publisher Site

Abstract

[Afghanistan—a country evoking images of poverty and mass migration, violence, and religious extremism to a Western audience—may seem a strange place to study the effects of democracy promotion. Yet Afghanistan is the destination of thousands of experts who conceive their endeavor within the framework of a struggle between the values of modernity (democracy, human rights, women’s empowerment, secular education, accountability, to mention but a few), the archaisms of tradition, and the corruption of the state system. Such an international involvement may recall to mind the presence of the Soviets in the 1980s who, in addition to their harsh military occupation, also implemented a development policy consisting of female emancipation, literacy campaigns, and land reform. But, more generally, Afghan history has been shaped recurrently by external actors. Building on the polity that the Pashtun tribes had created during their military advances of the mid-eighteenth century, modern Afghanistan came into being in the second half of the nineteenth century through the action of colonial powers. It is only at that time that the very name of the country was established, when the Russians and the British fixed its frontiers, making it a buffer state between their respective possessions in Central Asia and the Indian subcontinent.1]

Published: Nov 11, 2015

Keywords: Civil Society; Presidential Election; Rural Settlement; Local Governance; Descent Group

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