Patronage, Corruption and Governance in Afghanistan. A quantitative and qualitative Research in Northeast-Afghanistan

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Hans-Joachim Giessmann
• Subject Area: Political Science ; Empirical Social Research
• Term: from 2013 to 2016
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 250624895

The project will observe and analyse significant variation in the forms and frequency of corruption and how this variation affects governance output on the district level in north-east Afghanistan. Available quantitative research indicates the existence of significant regional variance in corruption levels within a country, but has so far failed to deliver satisfactory explanations of the phenomenon. Moreover, research so far has failed to consider the local social and political context as a key determinant of this variance. We intend to describe measure and understand fluctuations in forms and extent of corruption on the level of the Afghan district by using a mixed qualitative / quantitative research approach. We suggest that these differences are the result of different constellations of informal local institutions, in particular the forms of patronage and the quality of the system of grassroots representative development councils (CDC shuras). The projects thus investigates the impact of local level governance institutions, patrons and the system development shuras (independent variables), on the forms of corruption (mediator variable) and ultimately on governance outputs (dependent variable). The project thus contributes to the ongoing academic debate that questions an uncritical imposition of OECD-based models to fight corruption and provide governance to populations in weak states. Instead it searches for alternative institutional solutions to deliver governance and provide stability on the local level. The project also contributes to the wider debate on how to tackle corruption during interventions in conflict states without further destabilising instable peace accords.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• Participating Person: Professor Dr. Michael Daxner