The Role of Civil Society in Preventing Conflicts: Kazakhstan Experience

Abstract

One of the main conditions of preventing destructive political conflicts is a formation of mature civil society. In most developed countries establishing of power institutes and private sector preceded the formation of public sector, while in Kazakhstan, as well as in other post-soviet countries the development of these sectors are taken place at the same time. Thus the formation of institutes of civil society in Kazakhstan is still continued and has its specific features. As it is known, the stability in democratic society is based on the system of social partnership, which should harmonize the interests of different social groups. In Kazakhstan, it was created the system of social partnership, which also has its peculiarities. According to the authors despite the fact that the whole attribute of social partnership is obvious it's difficult to say that this system functions effectively. One of the elements of civil culture of Kazakhstani society it is distrust to political parties. On the whole, Kazakhstani citizens do not see the parties as a linking mechanism between power and citizens. Thus, comparative rate of people's trust to state authorities and institutes of civil society demonstrates that first of all, people give credence to state authorities. Nevertheless, authors believe that under current conditions an increasing role of non-governmental organizations will be essential for further development of civil society.