Afghan Political Parties in the Electoral Arena and their (feeble) Institutionalization

The roles political parties play in society depend also on a party's internal organization. For the democratic consolidation of transitional states, po¬litical parties are of crucial importance. The degree of party institutionalization depends significantly on how the party was founded, on its “genetic model” and on the ‘party-building’ pattern during the in¬stitutionalization process. The paper aims to provide an overview on current position of Afghanistan’s political parties and to analyse their ability and willingness to reinforce the process of their institutionalization. Afghan parties continue to face considerable challenges that hinder their development as credible political players. There are political parties in Afghanistan, but most parties lack cohesion and structure, distinguishable programme, and internal democracy. Most Afghan parties are still in the making, or proto-parties. From the fall of the Taliban until 2009, 110 parties were established, but most of these parties were small and formed by and centred on specific personalities. In this context, the institutionalization of Afghanistan’s political parties is evaluated through examining the degree of their adaptability, complexity, autonomy and coherence. Which indicators and specific characteristics of party institutionalization can be identified in the Afghanistan case? We find that historical legacies are a crucial variable affecting current levels of party institutionalization. At the same time, the structure of political opportunities (i.e., electoral rules - SNTV system -; the law on political parties; campaign finance regulations; and the new powers of legislative assemblies) can create a favourable environment, but are not sufficient. This study is focusing on party insti¬tutionalization in the sense of the conceptualizations deve¬loped by Panebianco and applied to the case of ‘new demo¬cracies’ by Randall/Svåsand and Basedau/Stroh. The research was delivered in the framework of a European project in Herat Region. It is based on interviews of parties’ political leaders and analysis of local documents.