This article examines how a troubled relationship between a centralist state and centrifugal society has posed a serious challenge to state-building in Afghanistan. Drawing on ‘state–society relations’ theory, the article examines how this persistent obstacle has repeatedly interfered with efforts to consolidate a sovereign state in post-Taliban Afghanistan. The article investigates the historical roots of the uneven relationship between the state and society by comparing Musahiban’s state conservatism with the People’s Democratic Party of Afghanistan’s attempted social transformation strategy. The article develops a new framework for the analysis of state-building where state policies and social behaviours are considered mutually significant in the state-building process. Moreover, by comparing the two major state-building strategies, the article investigates the implication of pre-war approaches in the post-2001 context.
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