Comparative Research Design - The Politics of Water Institutional Reform in Neopatrimonial States - page 70

poorer, have a large Uzbek population, and more 'traditional”. The 'North' mostly refers to the
provinces of Chuy and Talas, but also to Naryn and Issyk Kul although Naryn is very poor
(and partly more southern than Jalal Abad) and the two latter do not dominate the political
scene. The 'South' comprises the provinces Jalal Abad, Osh and Batken. Until the so called
'tulip revolution' in 2005, most of the political elite came from the north. This raised discon
tent among the public as well as among excluded regional networks that culminated in the
political upheaval in March 2005. The revolution itself as well as the developments in the af
termath vividly demonstrated the clientelistic nature of policy making in Kyrgyzstan with the
need for balancing the interests of powerful networks and satisfying the interests of different
regions (see e.g. Marat 2007; Sehring 2005). Clientelistic networks are also a decisive factor in
staff recruitment. About 25% of all state employees during the Akaev era were said to come
from Talas, the home region of the president's wife, who also played a strong role in influen
cing appointments (Anderson 1999: 42).
In Tajikistan, regional identities are reflected by the Tajik proverb: “Leninabad governs,
Kulyab guards, Kurgan Tyubbe plows, and the Pamir dances”. During Soviet rule, from 1946
1991 all republic leaders of the communist party in the Tajik SSR came from the same Lenina
bad regional network. The new government of President Rakhmon comes from the southern
region Kulyob. One reason for the Tajik civil war is widely seen in the conflict of regional
networks and the failure of informal alliances between competing groups like in other Central
Asian states (see Collins 2002; Geiss 2006, Herbers 2006: 47 69). As already mentioned, ac
cording to the peace accord 30% of all government post should be given to UTO nominees.
However, this was never realized. Important positions are filled with people from the Presi
dents network from the region of Kulyob. Hence, people speak of a 'kulyobization of adminis
tration'. The result is that many positions are filled by unqualified persons.
Corruption
The Corruption Perception Index (CPI) by Transparency International (TI) has rated Kyrgyzs
tan and Tajikistan since 2003 and shows high levels of corruption in both countries. Both
countries are among the 30 states perceived to be the most corrupt in the world. On a scale
ranging from 10 (highly clean) to 0 (highly corrupt), in Kyrgyzstan corruption is perceived to
be slightly lower (2.1 to 2.3) than in Tajikistan (1.8 to 2.2). 69
Petty corruption was a common feature in the Soviet Union, but in Central Asia it was
even more widespread than in other Soviet republics. However, it was outweighed by the im
portance of personal relations (Hensell 2004: 19; Dethier 2003: 6; Grodeland et al. 1998). After
independence, corruption increased dramatically and even became a type of informal tax law.
This is explained by the increased need for money as opposed to relations, the weakness or
complete absence of control structures, the redistribution of state assets, and the need to create
new institutions. Foreign investments and development aid provided additional opportunities
for sidelining money (Freitag Wirminghaus 2004: 170f; Dethier 2003: 7). Especially in Kyrgyzs
tan, which maintained a relatively strict privatization policy, assets and resources that could be
distributed became scarcer, and it quickly became common to use the possibilities granted by
an office in short time. Hence, corruption, office buying, and bribe practices increased (Geiss
2006: 35). In Kyrgyzstan grand corruption is considered to be a “key determinant of institu
tional and policy outcomes” (Dethier 2003:13). 70 Despite the low salary, leading positions in
69 See http://www.transparency.org/index.php/policy research/surveys indices/cpi (accessed 03/08/2007).
70 It is even argued that the HIPC initiative was rejected by the government due to its threat to corruption in the public
administration and energy sector (Marat 2007a).