Political Processes in the Republics of post-Soviet Central Asia

Abstract

The article analyzes contemporary political processes in the newly independent states of post-Soviet Central Asia. The peculiarities of functioning of their centralized political systems, as well as the interaction of the executive (the president and the government) and the legislative (parliament) branches of power are considered in the context of the authoritarian type of government that prevails in most countries of the region. Attention is drawn to the use by the ruling elites for the purposes of political mobilization of procedures for electoral democracy (elections, etc.), which is mostly of a formal nature. The place in the power structures of both officially recognized political parties and opposition ones is defined, which are divided mainly into secular and religious (Islamist). Informal political structures that function in a number of cases in the form of regional communities, territorial or ethnic clans are considered in the article as a specific characteristic of Central Asian societies. Based on the analysis of the political process in the Central Asian countries, it was concluded that the whole period of post-Soviet transit has come to an end and that authoritarian but consolidated regimes of a new type are emerging in the region; they form a sovereign statehood and an independent foreign policy strategy.