The NGO Paradox: Democratic Goals and Non-democratic Outcomes in Kazakhstan

Abstract

THE PROMOTION OF LOCAL NON-GOVERNMENTAL ORGANISATIONS (hereafter LNGOs) in the successor states of the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe has increasingly become the focus of international democracy-building efforts, orchestrated through the active involvement of Western non-governmental organisations (hereafter WNGOs). As part of the democratisation process, Western liberal democracies perceive that support for LNGOs serves as the initial building blocks of a civil society. These efforts at democracy building raise two sets of broad questions. First, what is the nature of these efforts? More specifically, what strategies do WNGOs employ to achieve their goals concerning the development of LNGOs in particular and the promotion of democratisation in general? Second, and more importantly, what have been the net results of these efforts thus far? To what extent can we say that, several years into the transition from state-sponsored socialism and communist party rule, LNGOs are evidence of an emerging 'democratic culture'? Are they indeed contributing to the wider process of democratisation in the former Soviet Union?