I'm working on a paper where I consider a decentralized*/federalized* political system in Afghanistan. While there are many journal articles (a quick google search would show this) arguing in favor of a decentralized system, very few actually consider the potential drawbacks - and dangers - of decentralization in fragile contexts. This can be especially true in multi-ethnic warlord-dominated societies, such as Afghanistan, where a decentralized system could pave the way for a disastrous "takeover" scenario by violent non-state actors. Similarly, the potential disadvantages of having a complicated decentralized system in a region where the neighboring countries are hostile, and might take advantage of a premature decentralized system, are rarely discussed as well.
So my questions are for those who might have some experience about this topic.
What are the potential drawbacks and dangers of decentralization in fragile countries?
How much literature do we have that focuses on this?
Conversely, is there any literature that argues for a centralized
system in a fragile context?
Some relevant sample articles:
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/23802014.2016.1297207
https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2307/26803230.
*I'm not using any specific definition or form of decentralization yet, so that is why I'm using it interchangeably with federalization
