Democracy can take root and become institutionalized in a given society when democratic institutions are strengthened and the rule of law is established there. In Afghanistan, democratic institutions remain weak and dysfunctional. Change is needed to take place to make democracy work and to ensure permanent peace in the country. To achieve these ends, a vigorous support for strengthening democratic bodies is required in Afghanistan to move the country to consolidation phase of democratization.

This should include making sure that the power is wielded directly by the public or indirectly by their representatives and that there is a proper and functioning separation of powers. Over the last ten years, democracy has been used cosmetically by Afghan officials, particularly by the president but no genuine actions were taken to improve the indicators of a democracy.

For instance, rule of law is an indicator by which a given democracy is gauged but unfortunately there are some individuals that continue to remain above the law and even the government officials and the president can easily violate the constitution and other laws of the country when their interests require so and they feel no obligation to be accountable to ordinary Afghans.

The culture of impunity is now deeply ingrained and so is the culture of corruption and bribery in the government agencies and among government employees. That is why no one is held to account when a bank collapses, people's money is stolen and the country's economy is damaged.

Due to the slow work in the judicial organs and courts of law, people are yet to recognize the state's sole functions of resolving disputes and they, instead, go to individuals and traditional mechanisms – or even to Taliban- to get their disputes settled. Afghanistan has been through several decades of civil conflicts and foreign interferences, which have led to widespread destruction, suppression, mass executions, torture, disappearances, internaldisplacement and forced migrations.

It is still at war with armed insurgents, in particular the Taliban. Every political party and ethnic groups must feel that they are included in the power structures and decision-making processes and that their interests are accommodated. Without realization of this, it will be difficult to achieve durable political stability and permanent peace.

Unfortunately, the current power structure is not consistent with this notion and thus people feel to be excluded from the decision-making processes. Therefore, they either remain apathetic or feel discontented when it comes to helping the country out of the ongoing crisis and political stalemate because neither president Karzai nor his corrupt government is clean enough to get people motivated and mobilized.

In order to stimulate people's interests in stabilizing, restoring the country, they must be included in the decision-making processes. To do that, there should be initiatives adopted to pursue fundamental reforms both in the political system and government agencies. It is important to get the president and his patrons understand that a sense of inclusion among people and political parties and elites does matter.