Political Leadership in Afghanistan

Identifying and Assessing Determining Factors

by Ahmad Rahmani

Download eBook for Free

FormatFile SizeNotes
PDF file 14.4 MB

Use Adobe Acrobat Reader version 10 or higher for the best experience.

Afghanistan is a country where national institutions are weak, if they exist at all. Any socio-political change is initiated and enforced through strong political initiatives exhibited by unique individuals with charismatic leadership capacity. Even after the end of Afghanistan's isolation in 2002, and excessive foreign investment in building institutions, many experts believe that the process has not lived up to expectations, partly because Afghans tend to mobilize around individuals and do not treat institutions seriously. This study takes those beliefs as a starting point and explores the factors that lead to a political leader in Afghanistan being defined as "good," "strong," or "popular" — as well as what needs to be done to improve political leadership for future generations, given cultural consensus on characteristics of good political leadership.

Table of Contents

  • Chapter One

    Introduction

  • Chapter Two

    Methodology

  • Chapter Three

    Demographics

  • Chapter Four

    Definition of Leadership

  • Chapter Five

    Characteristics of Leaders

  • Chapter Six

    Expectations from Leaders

  • Chapter Seven

    Identity of Political Leaders

  • Chapter Eight

    Main Findings & Policy Implications

Research conducted by

This document was submitted as a dissertation in January 2016 in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the doctoral degree in public policy analysis at the Pardee RAND Graduate School. The faculty committee that supervised and approved the dissertation consisted of Terrence Kelly (Chair), Gery Ryan, and Thomas Szayna.

This publication is part of the RAND Corporation Dissertation series. Pardee RAND dissertations are produced by graduate fellows of the Pardee RAND Graduate School, the world's leading producer of Ph.D.'s in policy analysis. The dissertations are supervised, reviewed, and approved by a Pardee RAND faculty committee overseeing each dissertation.

This document and trademark(s) contained herein are protected by law. This representation of RAND intellectual property is provided for noncommercial use only. Unauthorized posting of this publication online is prohibited; linking directly to this product page is encouraged. Permission is required from RAND to reproduce, or reuse in another form, any of its research documents for commercial purposes. For information on reprint and reuse permissions, please visit www.rand.org/pubs/permissions.

The RAND Corporation is a nonprofit institution that helps improve policy and decisionmaking through research and analysis. RAND's publications do not necessarily reflect the opinions of its research clients and sponsors.