(The last in an exclusive six-article series presented in conjuction with the publication of Matt's new book, "A Democracy Is Born," which deals with the American military campaign and creation of Afghanistan's new democratic system.)

This series has recently focused on challenges to democracy in Afghanistan, including (1) ethnic tensions, (2) narcotics , and (3) warlordism.  The remaining major challenge is the greatest of the four I am discussing.  The endemic poverty in Afghanistan and the poor prospects for its economy will make political development extremely difficult.

Afghanistan, as one of the poorest countries in the world, is in many ways unsuited to independent democracy as it is understood in modernized nations, if only because of economic constraints. During the presidential election in 2004, international media coverage of the movement of ballots via donkeys presented a stark example of this concern. While industrialized nations enjoy nearly instantaneous results due to electronic technology, Afghanistan's presidential election took weeks before the final outcome was clear. This delay occurred even with the majority of ballots being moved by U.S. and other allied military lift aircraft.

In addition, few Afghans have access to computer technology. Working with senior Afghan military officers in the Election Security Operations Center, I found out that exchanging e-mail addresses would be meaningless because it is a technology that they just do not use. Because of the United Nations' involvement in the election, the Afghan electoral body enjoyed the use of computerized databases and foreign computer experts to tally the results of the vote. However, this is not an approach on which the country could rely without the huge international presence in Afghanistan.

Finally, the bill for the election itself, in the hundreds of millions of dollars, is not something Afghanistan alone could support as a national expenditure. The economic constraints on the technical conduct of the election do not necessarily contraindicate democracy. American and European democracies flourished for a few hundred years before the advent of the computer, albeit with populations much smaller than their current levels. However, it should be noted that the economy poses significant technical challenges to democratic processes and governance.

The next point relevant to the economic condition of Afghanistan is the level of education and literacy. An uninformed electorate is one of the major concerns in American democracy. In a country where the CIA World Factbook 2007 reported that the literacy rate was only 28 percent, ensuring that the public is aware of the issues and the candidates becomes even more difficult. While the challenge is severe, especially in light of somewhat unimpressive efforts of national voter education projects in Western democracies, there are points of encouragement.

The Afghan people are extremely gifted in linguistics. Much of the country is bilingual, speaking the Pashtun language of the southern ethnic majority as well as the Dari language used by the government and most commercial enterprises. Some speak Urdu, which is a related language used by peoples living in Pakistan. In addition, many people speak English. Certainly, most who do so speak more fluently than my beginning efforts into Pashtun during my year in Afghanistan. Many people speak Russian due to the decade-long invasion of Soviet forces in the 1980s, and the ability to read, if not speak, Arabic is common among literate Afghans because of the Muslim custom of reading the Koran in the original Arabic.

I went to a marketplace to buy some scarves, and a French soldier was negotiating with the shopkeeper, who was speaking fluent French. I came behind him, and the shopkeeper spoke to me in fluent English. Based on the surprising facility of the people with languages, I suspect that educational efforts will make significant progress in teaching reading and writing. Nonetheless, this will be a long-term effort and will need to be followed by the development and expansion of the media.

The most problematic implication for democratization of the underdeveloped economy is the impact on civil society. Perhaps the most important element in democratic society according to most democracy theorists, civil society refers to the voluntary associations that enrich public participation in democracies, such as professional associations, religious groups, labor unions, private clubs, and citizen advocacy organizations. Due to the harsh realities of survival, such private association cannot be a priority in Afghanistan. Additionally, the problem of illiteracy prevents connections through the written media. The technological underdevelopment of the country prevents effective communication and transportation, along with the forbidding rugged terrain. Finally, the lack of computer technology prevents any sort of Internet connectivity, which has arguably been the most significant boon for civil society in the West and other parts of the world in recent history.

Looking at the citizens of the country during the election process, the popular enthusiasm for democracy is an encouraging sign to outside observers. However, such optimistic appraisals must be tempered with an understanding of the very real challenges the country faces. With an incredible voter turnout in 2004 and a diminishing terrorist presence in the aftermath of the election, Afghanistan took giant first steps toward democratization. These political developments must be coupled with social reform to reduce the influence of armed warlords and economic improvement to provide the country with the resources it needs to sustain democracy. With continued support from the international community, Afghanistan will be able to make progress toward these goals.

In many ways, the country is at a unique crossroads. It has the potential to return to a more egalitarian, wealthier, and freer society. Before the Soviet invasion, Afghanistan was not the dangerous, impoverished, and extremist country that it has been for the past twenty-five years. Whether it can recapture the encouraging path to development that it previously enjoyed remains to be seen. The threat of narcotics and lawlessness are among the most pressing issues, but the shadow of the former Taliban government still remains. Seeing women walk the streets in burkhas and continued factional violence by religious militants contribute to fears of this possibility.  Establishing economic viability, however, will be a fundamental prerequisite for a move towards sustainable democracy.