Changing the Rules? State-Building and Local Government in Afghanistan
探讨一种特定的国家观如何影响国家建设议程，提出理解国家及其角色的方法，并应用于阿富汗地方层面的两个国家建设案例，揭示官僚规则遭遇抵制及国际社会对权力中介角色的忽视如何导致地方政府改革失败，进而影响重建与稳定。
This paper looks at how a certain understanding of states is affecting the types of activities emphasised in state-building agendas. It proposes an approach to understanding states and their roles, drawing on ideas of institutions and their rules as a means of mediating power, and applies this to a discussion of two 'state-building' initiatives at the subnational level in Afghanistan. It shows how resistance to attempts to impose 'bureaucratic rules', coupled with the international community's failure to understand the role of states in mediating power, has contributed to the failure to date of interventions to reform local government. This has directly affected reconstruction and stability in Afghanistan.