Ideology, Clericalism, and Socialization: Some Reflections on the Sociology of the Afghan Taliban

Abstract

Before the occupation of Kabul by the Taliban movement in 2021, there had been some hopes that in power, it would behave very differently from how it acted when it earlier occupied Kabul from 1996 to 2001. This proved not to be the case. Always inscrutable, the movement prioritized ideology over interests, embodied a “theocratic-descending” model of authority, and was the product of a pathogenic pattern of socialization. Under such circumstances, the likelihood that it could succeed in securing legitimacy appears very low. A more likely scenario is the use of extreme coercion by the Taliban to crush any resistance.

Keywords:

• Taliban
• socialization
• clericalism
• authority
• ideology
• Afghanistan
• Islam

Additional information

Notes on contributors

William Maley

William Maley is Emeritus Professor of Diplomacy at The Australian National University. He edited Fundamentalism Reborn? Afghanistan and the Taliban (New York: New York University Press, 1998), and is co-author (with Niamatullah Ibrahimi) of Afghanistan: Politics and Economics in a Globalising State (New York: Routledge, 2020) and (with Ahmad Shuja Jamal) of The Decline and Fall of Republican Afghanistan (New York: Oxford University Press, 2023).