The political economy in afghanistan
The political economy of Afghanistan
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The political economy of Afghanistan
Table of Contents
Introduction: Afghanistan, a country in deep trouble………………………………..3 The political history of Afghanistan: Wars, Religion and Ethnics…………….5
From Alexander the Great to Ahmad Shah Durrani…………………………………………….5 The threeAnglo-Afghan Wars…………………………………………………………………………6 King Nadir Shah and King Zahir Shah………………………………………………………………6 The first Republic of Afghanistan till the Taliban and Hamid Karzaï………………………7
The economy of Afghanistan: War, shadow and subsistence………………….8
The Afghaneconomy by Pain & Goodhand……………………………………………………….9
The institutional organisation of Afghanistan: Chaos but hope…………….11
The Islamic Republic…………………………………………………………………………………….11 Poor figures and frighteningranks………………………………………………………………….12 Education…………………………………………………………………………………………………….12 A quest to money………………………………………………………………………………………….12 Weak governance, corruption and poverty………………………………………………………13 Hope with the National SolidarityProgramme………………………………………………….14
Interview: Feelings and thoughts of two Afghan Citizens………………………..16 Conclusion……………………………………………………………………………………….19 Bibliography…………………………………………………………………………………….21 Charts andFigures…………………………………………………………………………..23 Annexe 1: Pain & Goodhand……………………………………………………………….24 Annexe 2: List of the Afghan parties…………………………………………………….25
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The political economy of Afghanistan
Introduction
Afghanistan, a country in deep troubleAfghanistan is one of the poorest countries in the world (Fig.1). Many conflicts last decades between different ethnical groups or different visions of religion have caused a lot of damages involving the destruction of the basic agricultural, manufacturing and educational infrastructures, economics and political institutions have been weakened, and the domestic market has been destroyed. Those conflictsalso have prevented all educated, workers and capital sources to help the country entering in an economic growth scheme.
Rang (/180) 1 2 3 4 156 157 158 180
Source: FMI
State Luxemburg Ireland Norway United States Togo Afghanistan Tadjikistan Burundi
Fig.1
$US 84.507 46.786 45.453 45.176 1.649 1.640 1.614 724
Recently, in 2001, USA seized the power in Afghanistan. Since 1994, thecountry was led by Taliban’s, a radical Islamic group whose main aim is to create an Islamic State of Afghanistan. Thus, the objectives of this group are just to apply strictly the Koran, and not at all to drive the country to the economic growth, with all the disasters that such a widening gap with the West countries from an economical point of view can create. Actually, USA doesn’t control Afghanistanentirely because the unrecognized power of Taliban’s is yet really strong, particularly in the countryside regions. In these regions, Taliban’s are providing security to the population, and money to the farmers; they encourage them to grow poppy (opium) which brings a lot more of money than the classic wheat production. This is a win-win contract: the farmers can now support their numerous…