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Gods of Central Asia: Understanding Neopatrimonialism

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Gods of Central Asia: Understanding Neopatrimonialism Gods of Central Asia: Understanding Neopatrimonialism By Erali Paiziev Submitted to Central European University Department of Political Science In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts Supervisor: Professor Andras Bozoki CEU eTD Collection Budapest, Hungary 2014 Abstract The reasons behind the amazing durability of authoritarian regimes remains among the most challenging but also the most central questions of social science. And despite the long tradition of scholars having worked on this topic, they are still far from consensus. This thesis is concerned with exploring the concept of neopatrimonialism and the relationship between formal and informal forms of political behavior in understanding and explaining forms of rule in Central Asian political landscape. The central aim of this research is to identify the key factors behind the persistence of neopatrimonialism in Central Asian states. To do so, this thesis focused on two main explanatory factors for the persistence of neopatrimonialism in Central Asia: presidentialist models of executive-legislature relations and political culture of the region. CEU eTD Collection ii Acknowledgements I would like to express my gratitude to those people who supported me along the way to achieve my goal and complete this thesis. I wish to thank my supervisor, Professor Andras Bozoki, for his continuous support and suggestions for improvement. I would also like to thank all my friends, especially Illia and Raluca, for making this challenging journey much more fun and enjoyable. Last but not the least; I want to thank my parents for their trust in me and their support. CEU eTD Collection iii Table of Contents Introduction ................................................................................................................................ 1 Chapter 1. Theoretical Framework: Defining Neopatrimonialism ............................................ 3 Chapter 2: Factors behind the Persistence of Neopatrimonialism in Central Asia .................. 15 2.1.Presidentialist models of executive-legislature relations ............................................... 15 2.2.Authoritarian regimes of Central Asia ........................................................................... 16 2.3.Democratic institutions in Central Asian republics ....................................................... 16 2.4.The failure of Presidential model of governance in Central Asia .................................. 19 2.5.Factor two: Clan politics in Central Asia ....................................................................... 23 2.6.The significance of family networks, clans and regional power centers ....................... 27 2.7.Clan politics during the Soviet times ............................................................................. 28 2.8.Clan politics during the post-Soviet period ................................................................... 31 Chapter 3. Case Studies ........................................................................................................... 35 3.1.Uzbekistan...................................................................................................................... 35 3.1.The historical roots of neopatrimonial relations in Uzbekistan ..................................... 36 3.2.Neopatrimonial relations in Uzbek politics after the Independence .............................. 39 3.3.Kazakhstan ..................................................................................................................... 43 3.4.Soviet neopatrimonialism in Kazakhstan....................................................................... 44 3.5.Post-Soviet political trajectories in Kazakhstan ............................................................ 45 CEU eTD Collection 3.6.Role of clans and informal groupings in Kazakh politics .............................................. 46 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................... 49 References ................................................................................................................................ 53 iv Introduction The strategic location of Central Asia, at the crossroads of the two continents: Asia and Europe, has always attracted the interest of world powers throughout the history. It is represented by five “stans” (Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan) with different levels of economic developments and with a population reaching over 60 million people (Aldulhamidova, 2009) . It is a geographic area where the “Great Game” was played between the British and Russian Empires in the 19th century and gained new emphasis with a war on terrorism launched by the United States at the beginning of the new millennium. Central Asia is not only known for its rich natural resources but also for its long lasting authoritarian leaders, political repressions, widespread corruption and weak establishment of rule of law. It is a region that has witnessed only one peaceful transition of leadership (Kyrgyzstan) after the demise of the Soviet Union, and two transitions followed by a civil war and death of the leader (Tajikistan and Turkmenistan.) Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan are the only Central Asian states that have not experienced a leadership transition since their independence. Both Karimov and Nazarbayev, the presidents of Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan respectively, aged over seventy, are occupied with the question of succession dilemma. The importance of the topic lies in the scale of the consequences that the power transition in Central Asian states will entail not only to the region but also for the big powers that have significant economic investments in the region. There are many questions that need to be answered, such as: In what manner the succession will occur? Will it be peaceful or violent? Will it lead to civil wars and destabilization in the whole region? CEU eTD Collection However, if we want to analyze the power structure in these countries, it is important to look at what really characterize their regime types, namely neopatrimonial power mechanisms. Even though there are formal bureaucratic and legal-rational power structures, all power is derived from the leader himself. The legitimacy of the leader is coming from not the democratic 1 structures and processes and ideologies, but rather from a strong cult of personality and effective clientelistic elite networks. In such neopatrimonialistic types of regimes, the leader exercises his power by appointing people close to him, family or friends, to positions in key ministries, state companies or sovereign wealth funds, typically surrounding the oil, gas, and other natural resources, which they can use to advance their private interests (Giersch, 2013). These agent-principal relations are often followed by state corruption and nepotism. The privileged elite groupings, in turn, extend their support to the president by securing votes in their constituencies and opposing anyone who is threatening the president’s authority (Giersch, 2013). Since there are no established democratic institutions and rules that can ensure the transparent and peaceful transition of power, this makes the question of succession to the autocratic leader in neo-patrimonial states such a fundamental issue (Giersch, 2013). The objective of this thesis is to investigate the main factors of the persistence of neopatrimonialism in Central Asia. In particular, the thesis intends to address the following questions: what are the main reasons of the emergence of neopatrimonialism in Central Asia and the factors behind its persistence? It is hypothesized in the thesis that the neopatrimonialism in Central Asia will persist in a country with a presidentialist models of executive-legislature relations, and local political culture, represented by clan politics . Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan were chosen as a case study; firstly, because the regimes in both countries have outlived all other regimes in the region, the amazing longevity of these authoritarian and personalistic regimes makes them the focus of academic interest, secondly, CEU eTD Collection the recent political developments in these two countries are exhibiting strong prerequisites, among the other countries in the region, for the leadership transition in Central Asia in near future. I will address the above mentioned questions by selecting adequate conceptual tool that will scrutinize key elements for an explanatory framework. 2 Chapter 1. Theoretical Framework: Defining Neopatrimonialism The origins of the concept of neopatrimonialism lie in Max Weber’s sociological classification of domination and legitimacy, where he defines three types of authority: traditional, charismatic, and legal-rational bureaucratic. Weber writes that the difference between Western and medieval patrimonial societies is that institutions in the first one constitutes impersonal source of individual connections while in the latter the separation between private and public does not exist (Brunns, 2012). In traditional patrimonialism, the right to govern usually is materialized through heredity. Traditional authority is legitimate because it has deeply rooted in the traditions and continued for a long period of time. There are two sub types of traditional authority: a form of oligarchic rule that is based on elders called gerontocracy; and second type is based on male line of hierarchy that is
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