Creating a framework for civil society in Kyrgyzstan

Europe - Asia Studies

Volumn 52, Issue 1, 2000, Pages 77-93

  Anderson, John ^b  

^a UNIVERSITY OF ST ANDREWS   (United Kingdom)

^b NONE

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

CIVIL SOCIETY; DEMOCRATIZATION; INSTITUTIONAL FRAMEWORK; POLITICAL CHANGE;

KYRGYZSTAN;

EID: 0034054527     PISSN: 09668136     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/09668130098271     Document Type: Article

References (66)

1. This debate cannot be explored here but see E. Gellner, 'The Importance of Being Modular', in J. Hall (ed.), CiVil Society: Theory, History, Comparison (Cambridge, Polity, 1995), pp. 32-55. For discussion of the more 'open' approach see C. Hann & E. Dunn (eds), Civil Society: Challenging Western Models (London, Routledge, 1996); G. White, 'Civil Society, Democratisation and Development: Clearing the Analytical Ground', Democratisation, 1, 3, 1994, pp. 375-390; J. Alexander (ed.), Real Civil Societies: Dilemmas of Institutionalization (London, Sage, 1998).
2. This debate cannot be explored here but see E. Gellner, 'The Importance of Being Modular', in J. Hall (ed.), CiVil Society: Theory, History, Comparison (Cambridge, Polity, 1995), pp. 32-55. For discussion of the more 'open' approach see C. Hann & E. Dunn (eds), Civil Society: Challenging Western Models (London, Routledge, 1996); G. White, 'Civil Society, Democratisation and Development: Clearing the Analytical Ground', Democratisation, 1, 3, 1994, pp. 375-390; J. Alexander (ed.), Real Civil Societies: Dilemmas of Institutionalization (London, Sage, 1998).
3. This debate cannot be explored here but see E. Gellner, 'The Importance of Being Modular', in J. Hall (ed.), CiVil Society: Theory, History, Comparison (Cambridge, Polity, 1995), pp. 32-55. For discussion of the more 'open' approach see C. Hann & E. Dunn (eds), Civil Society: Challenging Western Models (London, Routledge, 1996); G. White, 'Civil Society, Democratisation and Development: Clearing the Analytical Ground', Democratisation, 1, 3, 1994, pp. 375-390; J. Alexander (ed.), Real Civil Societies: Dilemmas of Institutionalization (London, Sage, 1998).
4. This debate cannot be explored here but see E. Gellner, 'The Importance of Being Modular', in J. Hall (ed.), CiVil Society: Theory, History, Comparison (Cambridge, Polity, 1995), pp. 32-55. For discussion of the more 'open' approach see C. Hann & E. Dunn (eds), Civil Society: Challenging Western Models (London, Routledge, 1996); G. White, 'Civil Society, Democratisation and Development: Clearing the Analytical Ground', Democratisation, 1, 3, 1994, pp. 375-390; J. Alexander (ed.), Real Civil Societies: Dilemmas of Institutionalization (London, Sage, 1998).
5. M. Steven Fish, 'Russia's Fourth Transition', Journal of Democracy, 5, 3, 1994, p. 55.
6. Cf. E. Huskey, 'Kyrgyzstan: The Politics of Demographic and Economic Frustration', in I. Bremmer & R. Taras (eds), New States, New Nations: Building the Post-Soviet Nations (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1997), pp. 654-676; J. Anderson, Kyrgyzstan: Central Asia's Island of Democracy? (Reading, Harwood Academic Press, 1999).
7. Cf. E. Huskey, 'Kyrgyzstan: The Politics of Demographic and Economic Frustration', in I. Bremmer & R. Taras (eds), New States, New Nations: Building the Post-Soviet Nations (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1997), pp. 654-676; J. Anderson, Kyrgyzstan: Central Asia's Island of Democracy? (Reading, Harwood Academic Press, 1999).
8. Conversations with several Kyrgyz activists in Moscow, September 1994.
9. Slovo Kyrgyzstana, 7 December 1994.
10. See J. Anderson, 'The Kyrgyz Parliamentary and Presidential Elections of 1995', Electoral Studies, 15, 4, 1996, pp. 529-533.
11. Adam Przeworski, 'Democracy as a Contingent Outcome of Conflicts', in J. Elster & R. Slagstad (eds), Constitutionalism and Democracy (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1988), pp. 61-63.
12. April 1999 witnessed the arrests of several people accused of plotting a coup, the further harassment of independent human rights activists and journalists, and renewed pressure on alleged Islamicists.
13. G. White, J. Howell & S. Xiaoguan, In Search of Civil Society: Market Reform and Social Change in Contemporary China (Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1996), Chapter 1.
14. D. Wank, 'Civil Society in Communist China? Private Business and Political Alliance, 1989', in J. Hall (ed.), Civil Society: Theory, History, Comparison (Cambridge, Polity Press, 1995), pp. 56-79.
15. On early developments see M. Dabrowski et al., 'Economic reforms in Kyrgyzstan', Communist Economies & Economic Transformation, 7,3, September 1995, pp. 269-297; R. Pomfret, The Economies of Central Asia (Princeton, Princeton University Press, 1995).
16. On early developments see M. Dabrowski et al., 'Economic reforms in Kyrgyzstan', Communist Economies & Economic Transformation, 7,3, September 1995, pp. 269-297; R. Pomfret, The Economies of Central Asia (Princeton, Princeton University Press, 1995).
17. Slovo Kyrgyzstana, 1 May 1993.
18. Slovo Kyrgyzstana, 19 February 1993.
19. Vechernii Bishkek, 12 January 1998.
20. L. Roniger, 'Civil Society, Patronage and Democracy', in J. Alexander (ed.), Real Civil Societies; Dilemmas of Institutionalization (London, Sage, 1998), p. 74.
21. R. Achylova, 'Political Culture and Foreign Policy in Kyrgyzstan', in V. Tismaneau (ed.), Political Culture and Civil Society in Russia and the New States of Eurasia (New Yorke, M. E. Sharpe, 1995), pp. 326-327.
22. S. Kothari, 'Rising from the Margins: The Awakening of Civil Society in the Third World', Development Journal, 1996 (http://www.waw.be/sid/dev1996/kothari.html); see the more general discussion upon the meaning of representation in conditions of poverty in Douglas Chalmers et al., The New Politics of Inequality in Latin America: Rethinking Participation and Representation (Oxford, OUP, 1997).
23. S. Kothari, 'Rising from the Margins: The Awakening of Civil Society in the Third World', Development Journal, 1996 (http://www.waw.be/sid/dev1996/kothari.html); see the more general discussion upon the meaning of representation in conditions of poverty in Douglas Chalmers et al., The New Politics of Inequality in Latin America: Rethinking Participation and Representation (Oxford, OUP, 1997).
24. This analogy was used by both the Deputy Minister of Justice, Cholponkol Arabaev, and the chairman of the Commission for Religious Affairs, Emilbek Kaptagaev, in interviews with the author in September 1997.
25. cf. Slovo Kyrgyzstana, 15 April and 20 May 1996; Nasha gazeta, 17 January and 4 March 1998.
26. cf. Slovo Kyrgyzstana, 15 April and 20 May 1996; Nasha gazeta, 17 January and 4 March 1998.
27. Slovo Kyrgyzstana, 21 May 1993.
28. Slovo Kyrgyzstana, 4 April 1991.
29. Slovo Kyrgyzstana, 13 February 1992.
30. This number excludes several hundred media outlets and over a thousand religious organisations that are also required to register with the Justice Ministry. Interview with Deputy Justice Minister Cholponkul Arabaev, September 1997.
31. Nezavisimaya gazeta, 1 February 1996.
32. Kyrgyz Human Rights Committee, 25 June 1997.
33. Res publika, 7 October 1997.
34. Turkestan Newsletter, 6 June 1997.
35. Slovo Kyrgyzstana, 19-20 November 1996.
36. Interview with Emilbek Kaptagaev.
37. Though groups such as the much-attacked Church of Jesus Christ continued to face problems with the authorities and social pressures remained intense for those Turkic individuals who converted to either Western or Eastern religions.
38. Across Central Asia the term 'Wahhabite' has become synonymous with 'fundamentalist', but is used by officials and commentators alike with little discretion. In Kyrgyzstan there are more purist Islamicists who would like to purify Islam of practices such as visits to sacred places, extravagant burial customs, etc., but there is little evidence that they pose any serious political threat to the state. At the same time many of the apparent theological differences stem as much from ethnic, regional and personality conflicts as theological differences within the Muslim establishment.
39. Though officially a purely internal religious affair, the presence of Kaptagaev at some of these certification processes suggests a keen state interest in removing 'harmful' clerics, though it should be pointed out that Kaptagaev is more sceptical than most officials about the reality of the 'fundamentalist' threat.
40. Draft law in my possession; on the parliamentary debate see Vechernii Bishkek, 5 March 1999.
41. Kyrgyz Human Rights Committee, press release, 2 March 1998; Res publika, 17 March 1998.
42. Kyrgyz Human Rights Committee, press release, 12 and 16 December 1998.
43. In interviews with leaders of women's organisations and minority religious groups in September 1997 most expressed satisfaction with the formal legal situation and suggested that the majority of officials dealt with them in an open-handed way, but expressed fears about pressure from public opinion leading the authorities to act more restrictively.
44. Thus amnesties reducing the sentences of those sentenced in 'political' cases have generally owed less to judicial principles than political expediency, as in the case of Tuchupek Turgunaliev who in late 1997 was brought back to Bishkek from a strict regime colony on the eve of the visit of Hilary Clinton.
45. See the special issue of Democratisation, 5, 2, 1998, dealing with the relationship of democracy and the media.
46. Turkestan Newsletter, 21 August 1998.
47. They also seem to have been taken for granted by local officials, with journalists in Osh complaining that the regional administration's press secretary had failed to give any press conferences during 1997 (Res publika, 4 December 1997).
48. A point made in interviews by both Kabai Karabekov, deputy political editor of Vechernii Bishkek, and Bermet Bukasheva and Ida Kondrateva of Res publika, September 1997.
49. A point made in interviews by both Kabai Karabekov, deputy political editor of Vechernii Bishkek, and Bermet Bukasheva and Ida Kondrateva of Res publika, September 1997.
50. Slovo Kyrgyzstana, 30 June 1992.
51. Cf. Slovo Kyrgyzstana, 17 and 20 August and 9 September 1994.
52. Deputy Justice Minister Arabaev stated that, despite sharing the same building, his ministry had only the power to make a recommendation to the courts which they had the right to acknowledge or ignore as they chose (interview, September 1997); on this case see Res publika, 28 January and 11 February 1997.
53. Vechernii Bishkek, 1 December 1997.
54. Vechernii Bishkek, 7 November 1997.
55. Vechernii Bishkek, 20 June 1997.
56. Nasha gazeta, 24 October 1998.
57. Press releases from the Kyrgyz Committee on Human Rights, 12 and 25 January and 30 March 1999; Res publika, 26 January, 2 February and 3 March 1999.
58. Nasha gazeta, 10 December 1997; for a broader discussion see J. Anderson, 'Religion, State and Society in the New Kyrgyzstan', Journal of Church and State, 41, 1, 1999, pp. 99-116.
59. Nasha gazeta, 10 December 1997; for a broader discussion see J. Anderson, 'Religion, State and Society in the New Kyrgyzstan', Journal of Church and State, 41, 1, 1999, pp. 99-116.
60. See the interview with Jorolbekov, Vechernii Bishkek, 27 November 1997.
61. See the interview with Temirbek Akmataliev, then akim of the Ala-Buka district in Jalalabad oblast', Nasha gazeta, 20 December 1997.
62. Kyrgyz Committee on Human Rights, press release, 2 March 1998; Res publika, 17 March 1998, published a letter to the President and government from the Social Association for Defence of the Population detailing why restrictions on demonstrations breach the constitution.
63. Res publika, 15 December 1998.
64. E. Luzanova, Res publika, 6 December 1998.
65. V. Perez Diaz, 'The public sphere and a European civil society', in J. Alexander, (ed.), Real Civil Societies: Dilemmas of Institutionalization (London, Sage, 1998), pp. 216-217.
66. V. Perez Diaz, 'The public sphere and a European civil society', in J. Alexander, (ed.), Real Civil Societies: Dilemmas of Institutionalization (London, Sage, 1998), pp. 216-217.