Interface between State and Society

The hypothesis of this discussion paper is that the failure of successive government administrations in Afghanistan is partly due to a failed interface between the State apparatus and the Society. Therefore, the form of interaction between the new government and the Afghan society will determine how successful this administration will perform as compared to the previous ones. The paper analyzes the notions of ”qawm” and “manteqa” which are common characteristics of the Afghan society and their implications in the relation between the State and the Society. The administrative structure of the government of Afghanistan is divided into provinces, districts and villages. However, no mapping or listing has captured the complexity of villages in Afghanistan, particularly as the notion of village is unclear and bound to a variety of interpretation. This lack of clear interface has hampered the interaction between the State and the Society in the past. The “manteqa”, or the territorial unit of social groups in rural Afghanistan, does not have administrative recognition, although traditional structures/committees exist at the “manteqa” level (i.e. “shura-e mahali”, “shura-e manteqa”, “rish safedan-e manteqa” or “nomayendagan-e manteqa”. The “manteqa” and their committee are the missing interactive links between the district administration and the settlement/hamlet. From preliminary work in identifying “manteqa”, the author estimates that the total number of “manteqa” in Afghanistan is probably in the range of 3,000 to 4,000. These are far easier to administer than 20,000 to 40,000 settlements/villages or NSP (National Solidarity Program) shura of various sizes and nature. Read the paper....