Land, the State, and War
Property Institutions and Political Order in Afghanistan

The first detailed study of institutional economics and public choice traditions in Afghanistan.

Jennifer Brick Murtazashvili (Author), Ilia Murtazashvili (Author)

9781108493413, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 9 September 2021

380 pages
23.5 x 16 x 2 cm, 0.5 kg

'Among the mountains of volumes on Afghanistan that have been published in the past 20 years, Jennifer Brick Murtazashvili and Ilia Murtazashvili's new book truly stands out. It is a must-read for all students of Afghan politics. Innovative and ambitious, Land, the State, and War is not solely about legal titling and property rights: It is also about institutions, political order, informal governance, and more.' Romain Malejacq, Perspectives on Politics

Although today's richest countries tend to have long histories of secure private property rights, legal-titling projects do little to improve the economic and political well-being of those in the developing world. This book employs a historical narrative based on secondary literature, fieldwork across thirty villages, and a nationally representative survey to explore how private property institutions develop, how they are maintained, and their relationship to the state and state-building within the context of Afghanistan. In this predominantly rural society, citizens cannot rely on the state to enforce their claims to ownership. Instead, they rely on community-based land registration, which has a long and stable history and is often more effective at protecting private property rights than state registration. In addition to contributing significantly to the literature on Afghanistan, this book makes a valuable contribution to the literature on property rights and state governance from the new institutional economics perspective.

1. Introduction
2. A theory of property rights
3. Property rights and state building
4. Property rights and war
5. Self-governance of property rights
6. Self-governance, war, and the commons
7. Self-governance, legal titling, and the state
8. Are property rights a cause or consequence of political order?
References.

Subject Areas: Property law [LNS], Government powers [LNDH], Political economy [KCP], Armed conflict [JPWS]