Kazakhstan and the Soviet Legacy: Between Continuity and Rupture

✍ Scribed by Jean-François Caron

• Publisher: Springer Singapore; Palgrave Macmillan
• Year: 2019
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 216
• Edition: 1st ed.
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

This book examines Kazakhstan’s struggle to distance itself from its Soviet past over 25 years after its independence. To a very large extent, the affirmation of its sovereignty and a unique Kazakhstani way remain largely a matter of rhetoric. This book looks to explain the various aspects that show the continuity of Kazakhstan’s political system and governance with its colonial legacy, namely through its foreign policy, the country’s environmental policies, the judicial system, the management of religious diversity, the way youth organizations are structured and administered or how those who were born after the collapse of Soviet Union are still showing a typical Soviet behavioral attitude towards the political sphere.

What are the reasons for this reluctance or incapacity to break away from these ties of the past? Will the unavoidable political transition that will bring new individuals to the head of the state contribute to a real change? Will this lead to a break with the country’s past and a radical shift in the country’s policies or will things remain as they have been since 1991? This book provides some valuable insights on what may happen in the near future to the biggest country of Central Asia.

✦ Table of Contents

Front Matter ....Pages i-xiii
Introduction (Jean-François Caron)....Pages 1-5
Political Culture in Kazakhstan: Extension and Reflection (Aziz Burkhanov, Neil Collins)....Pages 7-30
End of an Era? Kazakhstan and the Fate of Multivectorism (Charles J. Sullivan)....Pages 31-50
The Environmental Legacy of the Soviet Regime (Beatrice Penati)....Pages 51-74
Trials and Tribulations: Kazakhstan’s Criminal Justice Reforms (Alexei Trochev, Gavin Slade)....Pages 75-99
Comparing Political and Economic Attitudes: A Generational Analysis (Barbara Junisbai, Azamat Junisbai)....Pages 101-138
Youth Organizations and State–Society Relations in Kazakhstan: The Durability of the Leninist Legacy (Dina Sharipova)....Pages 139-154
The Art of Managing Religion in a Post-Soviet Soft Authoritarian State (Hélène Thibault)....Pages 155-179
The Contemporary Politics of Kazakhisation: The Case of Astana’s Urbanism (Jean-François Caron)....Pages 181-205
Back Matter ....Pages 207-209

✦ Subjects

Political Science and International Relations; Asian Politics; Asian Economics; Development Studies