An Options Paper for the Afghan Constitutional Commission Unitary or Federal - A False Choice? Decentralisation of state powers in Afghanistan

This is an option paper that discusses the various benefits with regard to a separation of powers in Afghanistan. To do so, it broadly sets out the justifications for a separation of power between the national and local levels. It then addresses the applicable design questions, including: adversarial versis cooperative devolution, minimum powers at the national level, the unit of local governance, fiscal arrangements, security, dispute settlement between levels of government, institutional arrangements to bring communities together, rigid or flexible separation of power, and the method of implementation.