The rapid collapse of the Afghan state did not come as a surprise to those who are well-versed in the chequered history of the Law and Development Movement. While the Movement’s one-size-fits-all modernization project has been largely rejected, such misguided efforts continue under the aims of “building the Rule of Law” or “improving governance.” The fallout from the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan is a stark reminder for states and multilateral organizations not to overlook the lessons of the Movement that may have been obscured by the different banners under which state- and market-building efforts have been pursued. From the Movement’s sincere yet naïve efforts of state-building between the 1950s and 70s, to its swing to build and support markets under the Washington Consensus paradigm in the 80s and 90s, and a later emphasis on good governance through state institutions from the 2000s onwards, it is clear that top-down state-building efforts have had limited success. The paper argues that the failure of the Afghanistan mission may have been avoided if the U.S. had turned to the lessons learned from the law-and-institutions-building enterprises of the past 70 years. Instead, the failure to heed these lessons led to the building of a state akin to a house of cards. By overlooking the importance of embedded cultural institutions, the legitimacy of the state as perceived by its people, and the dynamic interaction between formal and informal institutions, the state-building project in Afghanistan was bound to fail. Following the takeover by the Taliban, the small gains made in Afghanistan over the past two decades on the issues of hunger, poverty, health, and education have seen rapid deceleration and require urgent attention. The critiques outlined in this paper, informed by the experience of the Law and Development Movement, are meant to inform, not discourage, global engagement in advancing the human development agenda in Afghanistan and other fragile contexts.

中文翻译：

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重蹈阿富汗法律与发展运动的覆辙

对于那些精通法律与发展运动曲折历史的人来说，阿富汗国家的迅速崩溃并不令人意外。虽然该运动的一刀切现代化项目在很大程度上遭到拒绝，但这种误导性的努力仍在以“建设法治”或“改善治理”为目标。美国从阿富汗撤军的后果清楚地提醒各国和多边组织不要忽视运动的教训，这些教训可能已被不同的国家和市场建设努力所掩盖。从 1950 年代到 70 年代运动真诚而天真的国家建设努力，到 80 年代和 90 年代在华盛顿共识范式下建立和支持市场的摇摆，以及后来从 2000 年代开始强调通过国家机构进行善治，显然自上而下的国家建设努力取得的成功有限。该论文认为，如果美国转向从过去 70 年的法律和制度建设企业中吸取的教训，阿富汗任务的失败可能是可以避免的。相反，未能吸取这些教训导致建立了一个类似于纸牌屋的国家。由于忽视了嵌入式文化制度的重要性、人民所认为的国家合法性以及正式和非正式制度之间的动态互动，阿富汗的国家建设项目注定要失败。在塔利班接管之后，过去二十年来阿富汗在饥饿、贫困、健康和教育领域的发展迅速减速，需要紧急关注。本文概述的批评以法律与发展运动的经验为基础，旨在为全球参与推进阿富汗和其他脆弱环境中的人类发展议程提供信息，而不是阻止全球参与。