Afghanistan portal |
The politics of Afghanistan are based on a totalitarian emirate within the Islamic theocracy in which the Taliban Movement holds a monopoly on power.[1][2] Dissent is not permitted, and politics are mostly limited to internal Taliban policy debates and power struggles.[3][4] As the government is provisional, there is no constitution or other basis for the rule of law. The structure is autocratic, with all power concentrated in the hands of the supreme leader and his clerical advisors.[5] According to the V-Dem Democracy indices Afghanistan was as of 2023 the 4th least electoral democratic country in the world.[6]
Afghanistan has been unstable for decades, with frequent coups, civil wars, and violent transfers of power. Most recently, the Taliban seized power in 2021 from the Western-backed Islamic Republic, and re-formed the government to implement a far stricter interpretation of Sharia law according to the Hanafi school.
Afghanistan is now controlled by a militant group that operates out of a totalitarian ideology.
In other words, the centralized political and governance institutions of the former republic were unaccountable enough that they now comfortably accommodate the totalitarian objectives of the Taliban without giving the people any chance to resist peacefully.
The Taliban government currently installed in Afghanistan is not simply another dictatorship. By all standards, it is a totalitarian regime.
As with any other ideological movement, the Taliban's Islamic government is transformative and totalitarian.
In the Taliban's totalitarian Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, there is no meaningful political inclusivity or representation for Hazaras at any level.