existence of a relatively stable institutional framework (Higley
and Burton, 1989) which was precisely what post-communist
Afghanistan lacked. Elite restructuring comes about when the
employment of force produces a beneficial change in the compos-
ition of the national elite, either through the elimination of parties
or a fundamental change in the nature of their power (Maley,
1997a: 172). Elite settlementsare ‘relatively rare events in which
warring national elite factions suddenly and deliberately reorgan-
ize their relations by negotiating compromises on their most basic
disagreements’. They tend to occur in response to two develop-
ments: ‘recent elite experience of costly, but also essentially
inconclusive conflict’, and ‘the occurrence of a major crisis which
provokes elite action’ (Burton and Higley, 1987: 295, 298). They
differ from the intergroup pacts which have been widely discussed
in democratic transition literature in that they are more inclusive
(O’Donnell and Schmitter, 1986: 37–9; DiPalma, 1990: 86–90). It
was through elite settlements that the attempt was made to over-
come the burden of fragmentation within the resistance, but the
burden proved too heavy to bear. Ultimately, it was to take almost
a decade, and the US war against terrorism, to bring about some
degree of elite restructuring.
The Peshawar Accord
The first attempt at an elite settlement came in the Peshawar
Accord of April 1992, which provided for the ‘structure and
process for the provisional period of the Islamic State of
Afghanistan’ (United Nations, 1992: 34–5). It was a very brief text,
of only 12 paragraphs. Paragraph 1 provided that Mojadiddi would
for two months head a 51-person body (Shura-i Intiqali) to ‘take
over power from the present rulers of Kabul’, and would serve as
President. After this, according to Paragraph 2, Rabbani was to
take over the presidency, and serve as President and Head of the
Shura-i Qiyadi(‘Leadership Council’) for a further four months, a
period not to be extended ‘even by a day’ (Paragraph 3). The
Accord then distributed offices, to be held by ‘second grade
The Rise and Fall of the Rabbani Government, 1992–1996 197