Afghanistan's experience with democracy has seen many twists and turnovers in the past one decade much like the history of this nation through ages and centuries. It has been a relatively new experience for an Afghanistan that stands, virtually, as a historical gallery of various political experimentations over the 19th, 20th and now the 21st century.

A brief look at foreign and Afghan media and observing the actual developments taking place in Afghanistan can be discouraging and uncomfortable as the barrage of negative reports coming out from Afghanistan seems to be in perpetuity.

Ten years on, making the Afghan democracy work is still a particularly difficult challenge and the frustrations are growing. It would be only fair to recognize that the project of building a democracy in Afghanistan, starting in 2001, has been a tremendously difficult task and continues to be so.

There still are various obstacles and challenges on the way; internal problems are being further complicated by outside interferences both overt and covert and the result is a mix of hope and despair and a seemingly-crumbling project that is only half-done.

The bitter experiences of the Presidential and Parliamentary elections in 2009 and 2010 were eye-openers. They showcased the extent to which the project of democratization in Afghanistan has succeeded.

Certainly, we, as of yet, cannot go to the extent of hopelessly characterizing the Afghan democracy as a "sinking ship" as some refer to, but the growing pile of obstacles and challenges are gradually becoming insurmountable and Afghanistan, unfortunately, is zeroing in on the point of no return. It is deeply worrying is that the odds loaded against the success of a genuine and stable democracy in Afghanistan are increasing with each passing month.

What tops the list is the growing authoritarian tendency on the part of the government in Kabul. Perhaps and partly, this is itself, both the cause and the effect of the glaring imbalances among the three "estates" of the Afghan state: the Executive, the Judiciary and the Legislature. A democracy without a strong, independent and right-minded Judiciary is doomed to committing grave mistakes. Grave mistakes are being committed right now and they are eating into the very vitals and fundamentals of the besieged Afghan democracy.

The crux of the problem is that less democracy and more authoritarianism would solve practically nothing. The contemporary history of politics in general and the modern history of Afghanistan are awfully replete with such instances: authoritarian and totalitarian tendencies have always spelled disaster for a body politic and nation in the long-run.

The science of psychology has shown that it is very common for politicians, especially for presidents (more than prime ministers), to resort to unconstitutional and illegal means when they feel they are cornered, have run out of options and confront tedious problems of 'realpolitik'.

As the pressures of dealing and handling the realpolitik issues and challenges mount on presidents and chief executives, they increasingly tend to resort to illegal and unconstitutional means to find solace in an illusion that they can handle these pressures and resolve the issues.

One rather famous case is the Watergate scandal or the leaked details of how President George W. Bush went to the extent of mulling over bombing the Aljazeera headquarters or scores of other unconstitutional measures that he and his vice-president, Dick Cheney, adopted partly as a result of the mounting pressures.

Here in Afghanistan too, it is evident that President Karzai is under tremendous pressure. One part of the reason why the government here has sought to manipulate, undermine, and enslave the parliament is indeed born out of desperation; on the other hand, another part is what criminologists refer to as "malicious aforethought"! In absence of a strong and impartial Judiciary whose rulings are consistently upheld, these authoritarian tendencies, whether born out of desperation or pure malicious aforethought, run wild; the nuts and bolts of a democracy start to fall out of place. It has happened in Afghanistan, the nuts and bolts are falling out of place and it has been quite some time!

The first grave mistake was committed when the government actively sought to appoint a pliant and conformist Judiciary in the very early years of the administration, and the subsequent inaction and failure to reform the Judiciary and leave the judicial stewardship in the hands of those who believe in the all-important task of building a strong, independent and responsible Judiciary.

From those early years, there should have been popular movements facilitated by the political opposition groups, the political class and grassroots organizations including the civil society to rise against this dangerous precedent. The work of rebuilding of Afghanistan's Judiciary was placed in the hands of the Italian government whose experts and lawyers obviously could not achieve anything significant other than throwing money at the problem.

Another grave mistake was committed when the current government sought to undermine the nascent foundations of the second parliament soon after the finalization of the list of MPs and the inaction and the apathy of the people in general, the political class and the international community and observers.

The president as the chief executive of the country did a major disservice to the cause of Afghan democracy when he, after the parliament rejected some of his cabinet nominees, referred them to the Judiciary and sought the vote of confidence not from the parliament but from the judiciary – an outright mockery of the Constitution and flagrant violation of the applicable laws.

The government in Kabul continued its track of disrespecting the applicable laws and the Constitution of the country on numerous other occasions. The saga of the second Parliamentary elections and the Special Electoral Tribunal took the government's anti-democratic maneuverings to a new high. The result has been that the second parliament remains beholden to the government and is easily vulnerable to government's manipulations and machinations.

Perhaps the real and the greatest test of Afghan democracy will come in the period until 2014 when the next presidential elections is due to be held. Ambitions on the part of the government are high to further politicize Afghanistan's bureaucracy which should, as a bureaucracy, remain apolitical as well as non-political.

Efforts are also underway to undermine the democratic institutions and processes and drive the country towards greater authoritarianism. These happenings do not bode well for the future of Afghan democracy.

Is Afghanistan going to join the league of other countries in our region (central Asia, our immediate neighbors to the West and South and East, etc) that are, by and large, authoritarian oligarchies? As the current trend continues unabated, the future looks bleak.
Certainly, it is not too late to prevent this negative and harmful process that is slowly unfolding.