Forever (Un)stable Regimes? The Comparison of Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan

Peter Plenta

doi:10.18290/rns.2015.7(43).1-3

Peter Plenta International University of Sarajevo

DOI: https://doi.org/10.18290/rns.2015.7(43).1-3

Keywords: Kazakhstan; Kyrgyzstan; political institutions; economy; security

Abstract

Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan are following different trajectories in terms of stability and leadership. On the one hand, the Kazakh president, Nazarbayev, successfully manages issues within the country, on the other hand Kyrgyzstan has fallen into a period of protests, revolutions and instability in 2005–2010. The article focuses on three dimensions in order to explain this difference: political performance, economic performance and security performance. Despite a huge contrast in economic conditions, Kyrgyz presidents could be successful in maintaining their positions. However, the use of similar tools like in Kazakhstan in political and security areas failed because of state-building effort almost in the whole history of independent Kyrgyzstan.

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