Security and Justice in a Failed State Context : The Effects of State Failure on Human Attitudes toward Formal Institutions concerned with Justice and Security in Kunduz, Afghanistan
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2012-12
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en
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Abstract
This study centres on primary data that was collected for the baseline study of the
Netherlands Integrated Police training Mission (NL-IPM) in Kunduz. The focus of
this study is on how human attitudes toward formal institutions concerned with
justice and security in peripheral Afghanistan are affected by state failure. It will be
argued that three interacting and mutually reinforcing factors underlie the “failure”
of the Afghan state. The first factor would concern the contested or de-monopolized
provision of law and order. The second factor would concern the flawed or weak
structural features of the institutions concerned with law and order. And the third
factor would concern the historical opposition to formal, centralized institutions that
is proclaimed to exist in rural or peripheral parts of the country. This study aims to
investigate how these factors are perceived by rural or peripheral populations, or
how they in turn affect the popular perception of formal institutional functioning.
Of central importance to formulating an answer to the research question underlying
this thesis, is the theoretical concept of “subjective rationality”. This theoretical
concept centres on the premises that even though human agents are rational in their
decisions, their assessment of reality and its options are coloured by socially
constituted “knowledge” and through the reflection or feedback on one’s own and
other’s “experiences”. These factors are what distort a human agent’s rational
assessment of institutional options. In effect, this study seeks to create a better
understanding of human agency within Afghanistan’s justice and security system(s),
by reflecting on 1) what are popularly considered socially and culturally preferable
(inter)actions; and 2) what are the popularly proclaimed most effective institutional
options.
This study will in fact argue there exists a large diversity among popular assessments
of formal state functioning. Although a relatively large segment of the population
has proclaimed there were institutional flaws and weaknesses present within the
formal system, it will be argued that on an overall level the majority view of the
population was one that actually considered the state as being relatively capable,
accessible, effective and efficient in terms of providing justice and security. In
addition, it will be argued that no such thing exists as an overall (dominant) popular
assessment of the formal justice and security system as being weak or failed – so even
though there might be a popular opposition to state institutions, human agents turn
out to be very pragmatic when they are in need of justice and security. In fact, the
data results will show significantly large levels of popular preference for and popular
confidence in civil institutions concerned with justice and security.
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Faculteit der Managementwetenschappen