| Abstrakt: |
This paper attempts to bring out the linkages between the formal and informal governance structures, actors and processes at Bati Kot district in Nangarhar. It explores the question: what linkages are present between the formal and the informal at Bati Kot district and how these linkages are affecting the state building practice at sub-national level in Afghanistan? The aim is to locate the findings at the sub-national district level in Afghanistan in the broader debate of how the state building practice1 of top-down and technocratic introduction of institutions generate paradoxes by either being remotely located, or incompatible with traditional sociopolitical life in fragile states.2 The context in fragile states is, on the other hand dominated by fragmented and informal governance practices and structures. Such reforms either sideline the informal processes, or engage with them in complex linkages that complicate the attainment of state building goals. In the process, the formal and the informal local power structures and practices coalesce and the resultant linkages between these either serve to inhibit state building goals, or promote these, but in nonorthodox, unconventional manner. Such contestations between the formal and the informal, the technocratic and the traditional makes the state building process complex and complicated for external state builders to device state building models that are more adaptive to local conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
