Institutional Deficit and its Effect on Afghan Political Order: Narrative of Decay within the Government

The Bonn Agreement signed on December 5, 2001 is considered as the starting point for establishing a democratic government in Afghanistan. The new government created hope for a bright and progressive future for the international community and Afghans with the slogan of commitment to the rule of law, accountability, and efficiency in services. However, the reality of Afghanistan tragedy indicates a severe deficit in the government-committed institutions. The constitution, as the most critical institution, provided the ground for emerging a king in the clothes of the president. The strong presidential structure with the "president as king" approach failed to establish political order and democracy, as well as planting the seeds for the lack of accountability and flagrant violation of laws, resulting in abuse the power by officials and even members of the National Assembly. The law and institutions failed to control people within the government and no one paid attention to its implementation or non-implementation, resulting in setting the stage for the crisis of legitimacy. The present study aims to assess the method of weakening the political order by the institutional deficit during the last 20 years. Based on the hypothesis, the institution's insignificance, as well as institutional noncompliance and instability within the government led to the concentration of power and weakening of government efficiency, rule of law, and accountability. The historical institutionalism theory proposed by Robinson and Acemoglu was used to test the hypothesis. This study was conducted by conceptual analysis with explanatory approach. The data were collected based on the document-library information and the references are presented based on the APA method.