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concerns, this contradicts the actual development in Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan (and other
Central Asian states). The phases of transformation liberalization, democratization, consoli
dation fall short of explaining the political development in Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan (as well
as in Central Asia in general), as both countries became more and more authoritarian after
some steps towards liberalization and democratization in the early 1990s (see Table 8 and
Table 9 below). Second, the methodological approaches of transition studies often focus on
political elites and by doing so provide very useful insights while this study assumes that
the meso level is equal or even more decisive and therefore focusses on this level of analysis.
Finally, it is assumed that all of Central Asia as part of the Soviet 'periphery' has more in com
mon with the post colonial states of Africa with regard to certain structural features than with
transformation countries in Eastern Europe some of which are already members of the EU. 17
Hence, tit seems hence more reasonable comparisons and generalizations of the findings to
draw with regard to other neopatrimonial, developing states and not for transformation states
in a narrow sense.
Additionally, the chosen approach does not classify certain social and political phenome
na merely as authoritarian relicts of the Soviet Union, nor of pre Soviet forms of governance,
nor as a re invention of those factors that temporarily prevent the transformation to democra
cy, but as structural characteristics of a distinct regime type. It is useful to grasp the historical
dimension of the societal and political reality in the Central Asian successor states of the Soviet
Union where the Soviet modernization policies have often only have had rather superficial
effects. Schlichte (2002, cited in Hensell 2004) even distinguishes “patrimonial socialism” as a
distinctive type of state in the socialist peripheries where 'traditional' and 'modern' elements of
power were combined to a hybrid regime type. As will become apparent in the following
elaboration of the concept, neopatrimonialism in Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan is composed of
path dependent structural historical legacies as well as of new phenomena of the immediate
context of transformation. Neopatrimonialism hence allows for a categorization of these re
gimes not only as post something ( totalitarian, communist, socialist) but in their historical
embeddedness, without neglecting the current circumstances and ongoing transformations.
4.2
Policy Analysis
Policy analysis in general aims to reveal why and how certain contents of policy are developed
and how they are put into practice, how certain polities and politics influence policy. The main
interest of policy analysis is to gain a differentiated understanding of the causes, dynamics and
characteristics of a policy process and to acknowledge its complexity rather than to seek to
reduce it. A basic model of policy analysis is the policy cycle (see Figure 4).
17 This is not to say that the Central Asian Soviet Republics can be regarded as colonies. But it appears fruitful to
point out certain structural features such as their status as low industrialized resource provider with strong economic
dependencies, a “combination of autocratic state practice with the ideologies of high modernism that animated both
Soviet communism and European colonial projects in Africa” (Beissinger, Young 2002a: 20), and a postcolonial/post-
Soviet period characterized by increasing poverty, deterioration of physical and economic infrastructure,
informalization of the economy (increase of subsistence and barter trade), dysfunctional institutions, limited state
capacities, informal regulative system (Beissinger, Young 2002: 4f). For a critique on the transitology approach to
Central Asia or post-communist countries in general see Berg 2004: 49; Kubicek 2000: 300-302; Hensell 2004: 12;
Geiss 2006: 23-25.
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