Kazakhstan in the Making: Legitimacy, Symbols, and Social Changes

305 Pages·2018·2.499 MB·English

by  Marlene Laruelle (editor)

Kazakhstan in the Making
Contemporary Central Asia:
Societies, Politics, and Cultures
Series Editor: Marlene Laruelle, George Washington University
At the crossroads of Russia, China, and the Islamic world, Central Asia remains one of the
world’s least-understood regions, despite being a significant theater for muscle flexing by
the great powers and regional players. This series, in conjunction with George Washington
University’s Central Asia Program, offers insight into Central Asia by providing read-
ers unique access to state-of-the-art knowledge on the region. Going beyond the media
clichés, the series inscribes the study of Central Asia into the social sciences and hopes to
fill the dearth of works on the region for both scholarly knowledge and undergraduate and
graduate student education.
Titles in the Series
Kyrgyzstan beyond “Democracy Island” and “Failing State”: Social and Political
Changes in a Post-Soviet Society, edited by Marlene Laruelle and Johan Engvall
Afghanistan and Its Neighbors after the NATO Withdrawal, edited by Amin Saikal
and Kirill Nourzhanov
Integration in Energy and Transport: Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Turkey,
by Alexandros Petersen
Kazakhstan in the Making: Legitimacy, Symbols, and Social Changes,
edited by Marlene Laruelle
Kazakhstan in the Making
Legitimacy, Symbols,
and Social Changes
Edited by
Marlene Laruelle
LExinGton Books
Lanham • Boulder • New York • London
Published by Lexington Books
An imprint of The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc.
4501 Forbes Boulevard, Suite 200, Lanham, Maryland 20706
www.rowman.com
Unit A, Whitacre Mews, 26-34 Stannary Street, London SE11 4AB
Copyright © 2016 by Lexington Books
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any
electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems,
without written permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote
passages in a review.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Information Available
Library of Congress Control Number: 2016950707
ISBN: 978-1-4985-2549-7 (cloth : alk. paper)
eISBN: 978-1-4985-2548-0
∞ ™ The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American
National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library
Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992.
Printed in the United States of America
Contents
Acronyms vii
Introduction ix
Marlene Laruelle
ParT I: The STaTe: ruLINg MeChaNISMS aNd SyMboLS 1
1 The Rule by Law: Negotiating Stability in Kazakhstan 3
Assel Tutumlu
2 The Kazakh Neopatrimonial Regime: Balancing Uncertainties
among the “Family,” Oligarchs, and Technocrats 29
Sebastien Peyrouse
3 Shrek Meets the President: Magical Authoritarianism
in a ‘Fairy-Tale’ City 63
Mateusz Laszczkowski
4 Shrines and Neopatrimonialism in Southern Kazakhstan 89
Wendell Schwab and Ulan Bigozhin
ParT II: The NaTIoN: CoNfLICTINg LegITIMaCIeS
aNd rePerToIreS 111
5 Nationalizing Elites and Regimes: Nation-Building
in Post-Soviet Authoritarian and Democratic Contexts 113
Diana T. Kudaibergenova
v
vi Contents
6 Imagining Kazakhstani-stan: Negotiations of Homeland
and Titular-Nationality 131
Alexander C. Diener
7 Which Future for National-Patriots? The Landscape
of Kazakh Nationalism 155
Marlene Laruelle
8 Cowboys, Gangsters, and Rural Bumpkins:
Constructing the “Other” in Kazakhstan’s “Texas” 181
Natalie R. Koch and Kristopher D. White
ParT III: The SoCIeTy: NegoTIaTINg
CuLTuraL ChaNgeS 209
9 Building a Muslim Nation: The Role of the Central Mosque
of Astana 211
Alima Bissenova
10 “The Spirit of Tengri”: Contemporary Ethnic Music Festivals
and Cultural Politics in Kazakhstan 229
Megan Rancier
11 Return Migration from the United States: Exploring
the Dynamics of Cultural Change in Kazakhstan 247
Douglas Blum
Bibliography 259
Index 281
About the Editor and Contributors 285
Acronyms
APK Assembly of the Peoples of Kazakhstan
BTA TuranAlem Bank
DEKKO dombra, estrada, küi, komputer, and oryndaushi
DMK Democratic Choice of Kazakhstan Party
DPNI Movement Against Illegal Immigration
DUMK Religious Board of the Muslims of Kazakhstan
EEU Eurasian Economic Union
ENRC Eurasian Natural Resources Group
FIG financial-industrial group
FSB Russian Federal Security Service
GDP gross domestic product
GNPF Kazakh State National Pension Fund
IPS Institute of Political Solutions
KEGOC Kazakhstan Electricity Grid Operating Company
KIMEP Kazakhstan Institute of Management, Economics and
Strategic Research
KNB Kazakh National Security Committee
KZT Kazakh Tenge
MITI Japanese Ministry of International Trade and Industry
MP Member of Parliament
OSCE Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe
SAPF Kazakh State Accumulative Pension Fund
SME small- and medium-size enterprise
SSGPO Sokolov Sarbai Mining Production Association
vii
viii Acronyms
SSR Soviet Socialist Republic
TB-LNNK Tēvzemei un Brīvībai-LNNK (For Fatherland and Freedom-
LNNK)
TNG Trans Neft i Gaz
Introduction
Marlene Laruelle
In less than two decades, Kazakhstan has become one of the best-known
success stories of Central Asia, perhaps even of the entire Eurasian space.
The country’s burgeoning economy had an impressive growth rate of about
7 percent a year—until the 2014 economic slowdown. Kazakhstan alone
produces about two-thirds of the gross domestic product of all Central Asia
and positions itself not far behind Russia in terms of GDP per inhabitant.
The country has adopted a so-called multivector foreign policy, which includes
a strategic alliance with Russia, a growing partnership with China, and good
relations with the United States and Europe. It has become a world leader in
debates on denuclearization and presents itself as a bridge linking the Western,
Muslim, and Asian worlds, with several sophisticated branding strategies such
as new the Western-style university, and hosting the world expo Astana-2017.
However, the domestic picture looks more contrasted. The Kazakhstani
authorities have been slow to avoid Dutch disease and to move away from
an excessive specialization in raw materials exports, especially oil. The
institutionalization of state structures and political parties remains weak,
unable to compete with the ultra-personification of power around the “father
of the nation,” President Nursultan Nazarbayev. Neopatrimonial practices
and endemic corruption undermine the justice system and the state admin-
istration, as well as the education system. Residents of the hinterlands and
provincial cities did not benefit from the rising living standards of the 2000s,
and they made their dissatisfaction known during the Zhanaozen event of
December 2011 and the land reform protests of spring 2016. Since 2014,
the economic crisis has hit Kazakhstani standards of living hard, especially
the poor and middle classes, and partly undermined popular support for
Nazarbayev and his “stability and prosperity” discourse.
ix