Hostname: page-component-7bb8b95d7b-pwrkn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-09-12T23:42:50.006Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Imagined democracy? Nation-building and elections in Central Asia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 November 2018

Donnacha Ó Beacháin  and
Rob Kevlihan
Donnacha Ó Beacháin*
Affiliation:
School of Law and Government, Dublin City University, Glasnevin, Dublin 9, Ireland
Rob Kevlihan*
Affiliation:
SAID West Africa, Regional Peace and Governance Office, Accra, Ghana
*
*Corresponding author. Email: donnacha.obeachain@dcu.ie
†Current address: Kimmage Development Studies Centre, Whitehall Road, Dublin 12, Ireland
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Is an imagined democracy more important than actual democracy for nation-building purposes? After 20 years of independence, Central Asian countries present a mixed bag of strong and weak states, consolidated and fragmented nations. The equation of nation and state and the construction of genuine nation states remains an elusive goal in all of post-Soviet Central Asia. This paper examines the role that electoral politics has played in nation-state formation. We argue that electoral processes have been central to attempted nation-state building processes as part of efforts to legitimize authoritarian regimes; paradoxically in those few countries where (for brief periods) partial democratization actually occurred, elections contributed, at least in the short term, to nation-state fragmentation.

Keywords

Central Asiaelectionsnation-buildingdemocracypost-Soviet
Type
Articles
Information
Nationalities Papers , Volume 43 , Issue 3 , May 2015 , pp. 495 - 513
Copyright
Copyright © 2015 Association for the Study of Nationalities 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

‡

Authors listed in alphabetical order.

References

Abdullo, Rashid. G. 2001. “Implementation of the 1997 General Agreement.” In Politics of Compromise: The Tajikistan Peace Process, edited by Abdullaev, Kamoludin and Barnes, Catharine, 48–53. London: Conciliation Resources.Google Scholar
Adams, Laura L., and Rustemova, Assel. 2009. “Mass Spectacle and Styles of Governmentality in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan.” Europe-Asia Studies 61 (7): 1249–1276.Google Scholar
Agence Presse France. 2000. “Karimov Wins Reelection in Farcical Vote.” Agence Presse France, January 9.Google Scholar
Akbarzadeh, Shahram. 1999. “National Identity and Political Legitimacy in Turkmenistan.” Nationalities Papers 27 (2): 271–290.Google Scholar
Anderson, Benedict. 2001. “Western Nationalism and Eastern Nationalism: Is There a Difference that Matters?” New Left Review 9 (May-June): 31–42.Google Scholar
Anderson, Benedict. 2002. Imagined Communities, Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism. 11th ed. London: Verso.Google Scholar
Bayart, Jean Francois. 1993. The State in Africa: The Politics of the Belly. London: Longman.Google Scholar
BBC Monitoring Central Asian Unit. 2006. Presidential Hopefuls Must Continue Niyazov Policy – Turkmen Leader. London: BBC.Google Scholar
BBC Monitoring Central Asian Unit. 2007a. New Turkmen Leader Pledges Reforms in Inaugural Speech. London: BBC.Google Scholar
BBC Monitoring Central Asian Unit. 2007b. Uzbek Airs Pre-election Speech of Incumbent Leader. London: BBC.Google Scholar
BBC Worldwide Monitoring. 2011. Kazakh Leader Trumpets Achievements to West, Says Elections Campaign was Fair. London: BBC.Google Scholar
Beissinger, Mark. 2007. “Structure and Example in Modular Political Phenomena: The Diffusion of Bulldozer/Rose/Orange/Tulip Revolutions.” Perspectives on Politics 5 (2): 259–276.Google Scholar
von Beyme, Klaus. 1996. Transition to Democracy in Eastern Europe. London: Macmillan.Google Scholar
Billig, Michael. 1995. Banal Nationalism. London: Sage.Google Scholar
Brill Olcott, Martha. 1999. “New States and New Identities, Religion and State Building in Central Asia.” In Ethnic Conflict and International Politics in the Middle East, edited by Binder, L., 245–307. Gainsville, FL: University Press of Florida.Google Scholar
Brooks, Jeffrey. 2000. Thank You, Comrade Stalin! Soviet Public Culture from Revolution to Cold War. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Brown, Nathan J., and Kauffman, Craig M. 2011. “Introduction.” In The Dynamics of Democratization, Dictatorship, Development and Diffusion, edited by Brown, N. J., 1–16. Baltimore, MA: Johns Hopkins University Press.Google Scholar
Carothers, Thomas. 2002. “The End of the Transition Paradigm.” Journal of Democracy 13 (1): 5–21.Google Scholar
Chabol, Patrick and Pasal Daloz, Jean. 1999. Disorder as a Political Instrument. Oxford: James Currey.Google Scholar
Collins, Kathleen. 2002. “Clans, Pacts and Politics in Central Asia.” Journal of Democracy 13 (3): 137–152.Google Scholar
Collins, Kathleen. 2006. Clan Politics and Regime Transition in Central Asia. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Cummings, Sally N. 2006. “Legitimation and Identification in Kazakhstan.” Nationalism and Ethnic Politics 12 (2): 177–204.Google Scholar
Deutsch, Karl. 1953. “The Growth of Nations.” World Politics V (2): 168–195.Google Scholar
Deutsch, Karl. 1966. Nationalism and Social Communication. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Diamond, Larry, Plattner, Marc F., Chu, Yun-Han, and Tien, Hung-mao, eds. 1997. Consolidating the Third Wave Democracies, Themes and Perspectives. Baltimore, MD: The John's Hopkins University Press.Google Scholar
Fumagalli, Matteo. 2012. “The 2011 Presidential Elections in Kyrgyzstan.” Electoral Studies 31 (4): 864–867.Google Scholar
Gandhi, Jennifer, and Przeworski, Adam. 2007. “Authoritarian Institutions and the Survival of Autocrats.” Comparative Political Studies 40 (11): 1279–1301.Google Scholar
Geddes, Barbara. 1999. “Authoritarian Breakdown: Empirical Test of a Game Theory.” American Political Science Association Annual Conference. Palo Alto, California.Google Scholar
Geertz, Clifford. 1981. Negara: The Theater State in 19th Century Bali. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Gellner, Ernest. 1983. Nations and Nationalism. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Gleason, Gregory. 1997. The Central Asian States; Discovering Independence. Boulder, CO: Westview.Google Scholar
Grant Smith, R. 1999. “Tajikistan: The Rocky Road to Peace.” Central Asian Survey 18 (2): 243–251.Google Scholar
Herbst, Jeffrey. 2000. States and Power in Africa: Comparative Lessons in Authority and Control. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Hobsbawn, Eric J. 1992. Nations and Nationalism Since 1870. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Horák, Slavomír. 2010. “Changes in the Political Elite in Post-Soviet Turkmenistan.” China and Eurasia Forum Quarterly 8 (3): 27–46.Google Scholar
Hyde, Susan. 2011. “International Dimensions of Elections.” In The Dynamics of Democratization, Dictatorship, Development and Diffusion, edited by Brown, N. J., 267–282. Baltimore, MA: Johns Hopkins University Press.Google Scholar
Isaacs, Rico. 2010. “Informal Politics and the Uncertain Context of Transition: Revisiting Early Stage Non-democratic Development in Kazakhstan.” Democratization 17 (1): 1–25.Google Scholar
Isaacs, Rico, and Whitmore, Sarah. 2014. “The Limited Agency and Lifecycles of Personalized Dominant Parties in the Post-Soviet Space: The Cases of United Russia and Nur Otan.” Democratization 21 (4): 699–721.Google Scholar
Kevlihan, Robert, and Sherzamonov, Amri. 2010. “Tajikistan.” In The Colour Revolutions in the Former Soviet Republics, edited by Beacháin, D. Ó. and Polese, A., 177–195. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Kohn, Hans. 1969. The Idea of Nationalism. Toronto: The Macmillan Company.Google Scholar
Lijphart, Arend, and Waisman, Carlos H. 1996. Institutional Design in New Democracies: Eastern Europe and Latin America. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.Google Scholar
Luong, Pauline Jones. 2002. Institutional Change and Political Continuity in Post-Soviet Central Asia; Power, Perceptions, and Pacts. Cambridge, NY: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Magaloni, Beatriz, and Kricheli, Ruth. 2010. “Political Order and One-Party Rule.” Annual Review of Political Science 13: 123–143.Google Scholar
McAdam, Doug, Tarrow, Sidney, and Tilly, Charles. 2001. Dynamics of Contention. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
McFaul, Michael. 2002. “The Fourth Wave of Democracy and Dictatorship: Noncooperative transitions in the Post-Communist World.” World Politics 54 (2): 212–244.Google Scholar
Megoran, N. 2008. “Framing Andijon, Narrating the Nation: Islam Karimov's Account of the Events of 13 May 2005.” Central Asian Survey 27 (1): 15–31.Google Scholar
Mitchell, Lincoln A. 2012. The Color Revolutions. Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press.Google Scholar
Ó Beacháin, Donnacha. 2005. “Parliamentary Elections in Kazakhstan.” Electoral Studies 24 (4): 762–769.Google Scholar
Ó Beacháin, Donnacha. 2009. “Roses and Tulips: Dynamics of Colour Revolutions in Georgia and Kyrgyzstan.” Journal of Communist Studies and Transition Politics 25 (2-3): 199–226.Google Scholar
Ó Beacháin, Donnacha. 2010. “Turkmenistan.” In The Colour Revolutions in the Former Soviet Republics, edited by Beacháin, D. Ó. and Polese, A., 217–236. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Ó Beacháin, Donnacha, and Kevlihan, Rob. 2013. “Threading a needle: Kazakhstan between civic and ethno-nationalist state-building.” Nations and Nationalism 19 (2): 337–356.Google Scholar
Ó Beacháin, Donnacha, and Polese, Abel. 2009. “From Roses to Bullets: The rise and decline of Post-Soviet colour revolutions.” In Totalitarianism and Transformation: Central and Eastern Europe between Socialist Legacy and Democratic Transformation, edited by U. Backes, T. Jaskulowski and Polese, A., 63–100. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht.Google Scholar
Ó Beacháin, Donnacha, and Polese., Abel eds. 2010. The Colour Revolutions in the Former Soviet Republics. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
O'Donnell, Guillermo, Schmitter, Philippe C., and Whitehead, Laurence, eds. 1986. Transitions from Authoritarian Rule: Comparative Perspectives. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press.Google Scholar
OSCE/ODIHR. 2010. Republic of Uzbekistan Parliamentary Elections, 27 December 2009: Election Assessment Mission Final Report. Warsaw, Poland: Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights.Google Scholar
Peterson, Zach. 2012. “The Silent Treatment From Turkmenistan's New Political Player.” Transmission. Prague, Czech Republic: Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.Google Scholar
Posner, Daniel N. 2004. “The Political Salience of Cultural Difference: Why Chewas and Tumbukas Are Allies in Zambia and Adversaries in Malawi.” American Political Science Review 98 (4): 529–545.Google Scholar
Przeworski, Adam. 1991. Democracy and Market: Political and Economic Reforms in Eastern Europe and Latin America. Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Robertson, Graeme B. 2011. The Politics of Protest in Hybrid Regimes, Managing Dissent in Post-Communist Russia. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Sabol, Stephen. 2003. “Turkmenbashi: Going it Alone.” Problems of Post-Communism 50 (5): 48–57.Google Scholar
Schatz, Edward. 2005. “Reconceptualizing Clans: Kinship Networks and Statehood in Kazakhstan.” Nationalities Papers 33 (2): 231–254.Google Scholar
Schmitter, Philippe C. 1994. “The Conceptual Travels of Transitologists and Consolidationists: How Far to the East Should They Attempt to Go?” Slavic Review 53 (1): 173–185.Google Scholar
Smith, Anthony D. 1986. The Ethnic Origins of Nations. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.Google Scholar
Smith, Anthony D. 1991. National Identity. Reno, NV: University of Nevada Press.Google Scholar
Snyder, Jack. 1993. “Nationalism and the Crisis of the Post-Soviet State.” Survival 35 (1): 5–26.Google Scholar
Songstad, Nils Gunnar. 2005. The Republic of Uzbekistan: Parliamentary Elections – 2004. Oslo: Norwegian Centre for Human Rights/NORDEM.Google Scholar
Temirkulov, Azamat. 2010. “Kyrgyz ‘Revolutions’ in 2005 and 2010: Comparative Analysis of Mass Mobilization.” Nationalities Papers 38 (5): 589–600.Google Scholar
Thompson, Mark R., and Kuntz, Philipp. 2006. “After Defeat: When Do Rulers Steal Elections?” In Electoral Authoritarianism: The Dynamics of Unfree Competition, edited by Schedler, Andreas, 113–128. Boulder: L. Rienner Publishers.Google Scholar
Tilly, Charles. 1985. “War making and state making as organized crime.” In Bringing the State Back In, edited by P. Evans, D. Rueschemeyer and Skocpol, T., 169–191. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Tilly, Charles. 2000. Coercion, Capital and European States: AD 990–1992. Malden, MA: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Tucker, Joshua A. 2007. “Enough! Electoral Fraud, Collective Action Problems, and Post-Communist Colored Revolutions.” Perspectives on Politics 5 (3): 535–545.Google Scholar
Wilson, Andrew. 2005. Virtual Politics, Faking Democracy in the Post-Soviet World. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.Google Scholar