Comparative Research Design - The Politics of Water Institutional Reform in Neopatrimonial States - page 65

by the Parliament. The Parliament ( Majlisi Oli ) consists of two chambers: The lower chamber
( Majlisi Namoyandagon ) consists of 63 delegates who are elected directly for a five year term
(65% on majority vote in the districts and 35% on party lists). The upper chamber ( Majlisi
Milli ) has 33 members, 25 of whom are elected delegates of local assemblies and eight are
appointed by the President. They also serve a five year term. Majlisi with elected representa
tives also exist at the regional level in the oblasts (provinces) Sughd (former Leninabad) and
Khatlon (unified former Kulyob and Kurgan Tebbe oblasts ), the Gorno Badakhshan Auto
nomous Oblast (GBAO) 60 , the Regions of Republican Subordination (RRS) 61 , and the city of
Dushanbe. Since 2000, opposition parties (banned in 1993) have been allowed again. Similar to
Kyrgyzstan, they all lack a mass basis and sound infrastructure, and are generally not involved
in the political process. Until now, all elections have failed to meet OSCE standards. Despite
the fact that the conflicts have been settled, Tajikistan remains a fragile and fragmented state
with only limited assertiveness of state structures (Schwarz, Rakhmonova Schwarz 2004: 265f;
Abdullaev 2004: 11).
The main aim after the peace agreement in 1997 was to reach stability by including the
opposition groups in the government and by reasserting state control over all parts of the
country. This was mainly achieved through a high centralization and monopolization of power
by the President and his apparatus, legitimized by the need to overcome subnational disintegra
tion. Consequently, “no deep political reform or change of the functioning political system has
taken place. (…), the current regime and its political personnel have operated according to the
established political models and cultures which were in place in the Soviet Union” (De Martino
2004: 152). These were even reinforced by a system combining strong authoritarianism of the
President with the backing of his regional elite.
As in other parts of the Soviet Union, the glasnost period at the end of the 1980s led to the
establishment of NGOs in the urban areas in the Tajik SSR as well. These NGOs were mainly
concerned with environmental issues, women, or Tajik culture. However, during the war and
post war period, most of them concentrated on social and humanitarian tasks. Although the
number of NGOs increased after the end of the civil war (in 2002 there are estimated to be
more than 1,200 NGOs), there are hardly any advocacy oriented ones (Freizer 2005: 226f).
NGOs do not play any role in the decision making process. They lack effective umbrella or
ganizations and have weak connections to the Parliament and are not organized well enough to
draw attention to their policy proposals, if they have any (IWPR 2007a).
Both countries cannot be classified as democracies or even as transition countries as they
have consolidated below the threshold to democracy. To illustrate the difference in both re
gimes, it is useful to have a look at some governance and democracy measurement indices
developed by various organizations and academic institutes. The following two tables 8 and 9
show the indices of Freedom House and the World Bank. These were chosen as their data sets
in contrast to others reach back until the beginning of the transformation period (Free
dom House) resp. the middle of the 1990s (World Bank); hence they show the different ways
of transformation in both countries.
The Freedom House data show the period of political liberalization in the beginning of
the 1990s in Kyrgyzstan as opposed to the civil war Tajikistan. Although the World Bank data
60 The GBAO covers the Eastern part of Tajikistan, in total 44,5% of its territory. However, this consists mostly of
high mountains. Only three percent of the population lives in this area. The inhabitants are mainly Pamiri Ismailites
with a distinct religious and cultural identity and their own languages (Abdullaev 2004: 9).
61 The RRS encompass 13 districts and four cities (including the capital Dushanbe) in the central part of Tajikistan that
are directly subordinate to the national government.