the commanding heights, the ‘pinnacle of the state’ where the ‘top
executive leadership’ is to be found (Migdal, 1994: 16).
As the great German sociologist Max Weber argued, domination
can be exercised on both normative and prudential bases.
Domination which is normatively based, that is, based on volun-
tary acceptance by the ruled, is often called ‘legitimate’.
Legitimate domination can be exercised on a number of different
grounds: Weber pointed to the importance of legal-rational, trad-
itionaland charismaticauthority. However, he also took pains to
emphasise the importance of certain types of elite cohesion, noting
that ‘organized domination requires control of the personal execu-
tive staff and the material implements of administration’ (Weber,
1948: 80).
When Zahir Shah ascended the throne in 1933, the Afghan
regime obtained the bulk of its revenue through taxes on land. For
the next two decades, the state was under the effective control of
two of the King’s paternal uncles: first, Muhammad Hashem Khan
(who served as Prime Minister until 1946) and Shah Mahmoud
Khan (Prime Minister from 1946 until 1953). During their rule, the
fiscal basis of the state changed significantly. By 1953, taxes on
land and livestock represented only 14 per cent of government
domestic revenue; by contrast, 39 per cent came from taxes on for-
eign trade, and a further 10 per cent from asset sales (Rubin,
1995a: 60). The following decade, during which Zahir Shah’s
cousin Muhammad Daoud served as Prime Minister, saw an even
more dramatic shift, largely as a result of Daoud’s courting of
external backers which I shall discuss in more detail shortly. In
1953, only 7 per cent of state expenditure was funded by foreign
aid, with 93 per cent funded from domestic revenue. By 1963, for-
eign aid funded fully 49 per cent of state expenditure, with domes-
tic revenue covering just 38 per cent, the balance coming from
domestic borrowing (Rubin, 1995a: 296). The implications of this
shift in the fiscal basis of the state were considerable. A prescient
aphorism of the Sasanian period, recorded first by Ibn Balkhi, runs
as follows: ‘There is no kingdom without an army, no army with-
out wealth, no wealth without material prosperity, and no material
14 The Afghanistan Wars