This book is about transformation of the state and an incomplete state-building. It defies the transitology assumption of continuity, linearity and dichotomy of formal and informal in the transformation of the state. Contrary to the conventional approaches, it claims that any social order or its political scaffolding, the state, is always incomplete and we need to develop cognitive maps to better understand that incompleteness. It reflects on the social practices, processes and patterns that evolve as a non-linear result of three sets of factors: those that are historical, external, and elite-driven. Three Central Asian states - Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and Kyrgyzstan - are examined here comparatively as case studies, as Central Asia represents an interesting terrain to challenge conventional understanding of the state. Specifically, the book captures a paradox at hand: how come three states, which made different political, economic, cultural, and social choices at the outset of their independence in the 1990s, have ended up as so-called “weak states” in the 2000s and onwards? This puzzle can be better understood through looking at the relationship among three main sets of factors that shape state-building processes, such as history, external actors, and local elites. This book applies an interdisciplinary approach, combining political anthropology, political economy, sociology, and political science. It helps conceptualize and understand social and political order beyond the “failed state” paradigm
Author(s): Viktoria Akchurina
Series: Critical Security Studies in the Global South
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
Year: 2022
Language: English
Pages: 349
City: Cham
A Love Letter to Central Asia
About This Book
Contents
Abbreviations
List of Figures
List of Tables
1 Introduction: The State as Social Practice
Organization of the Book
References
2 The Incomplete State: Fifty Shades of Failure
Indicators of Failure: Explananda or Explicantia?
The Incomplete State: Defining and Operationalizing the Explanandum
Transnationality: Crime and Survival
Cross-Sectionality: Drugs for “Hearts and Minds”
Entrysm: Mutual Trust Networks, their Stakeholders, and Social Structures
Conclusion
A Note on Methodology
Case Study Method: Definitions, Controversies, Advantages
Case Selection Strategies
Data Collection
References
3 Understanding State-Building in Central Asia
Introduction
The Myths and the Scripts: From the Heartland to the Broken-State Theory
From Duality to Integrity: Theorizing from Within Central Asia
Strong vs. Weak States
Rationality vs. Irrationality
Institutional vs. Historical Contextualization of the State
Formal vs. Informal
Main Propositions of the Book: The Heartland Gets Stronger Wherever It is Broken
The State as Social Practice
Conclusion
References
4 Follow the Water: Soviet Legacy as Cross-Border Societal Interdependence
Introduction
Pre-Soviet Societal Organization and Patterns of Social Relations
Soviet State-Making: Ethnicities, Resources, Nations
Collectivization: Social Resistance and Collective Interest
De-Collectivization: from Collective to Private Property
Land: New Legal Frameworks, Old Social Patterns
Water: Restructuring Non-Land Assets – Empowering Communities?
Community-Level Water Management: The Case of the Isfara River
Conclusion
References
5 Impact of External Actors on States and Societies
Introduction
Organizing Security
Border Management: Materializing Symbolic Borders and the Idea of Threat
Materialized Borders: Standardizing National Security Infrastructures
Societal Consequences of Borders: Creating the “Island Pockets”
Cases of Batken, Vorukh, Sokh, and Shahimardan
Case 1: Batken (Kyrgyzstan)
Case 2: Sokh and Shahimardan (Uzbekistan)
Case 3. Vorukh (Tajikistan)
Organizing Economies
Introduction
CAREC: Promoting Non-standard Trade—Supporting Parallel Survival Strategies?
CAREC’s Societal Consequences: Integrating Peasanty into the Parallel Realms of the Bazaar
CASA-1000: The New Silk Road and the Soviet Logistics
CASA-1000 Societal Consequences: Internal Displacement and Identity of Resistance
Organizing Societies
Introduction
Formal Civil Society: Institutionalization, Patronage, and Legitimacy
Parallel Civil Society: Outsourcing Ideological Power
Islamic NGOs: The Narratives of Betrayal and Their Sponsors
The Civil “Underground” and Its Sponsors
Conclusion
References
6 When Elites Meet: The Struggle for Power and Its Social Meaning
Introduction
Tajikistan: The Strategy of Elimination
The Map of the Competing Elites and the Power-Sharing
Democrats and Islamists as Modernizers
The UTO Elite and Military Sources of Power
The Ruling Elite and Economic Resources
The Strategy of Elimination and Its Rationale
Uzbekistan: The Strategy of Accommodation
Introduction
The State as a Bargain: Elites and Their Spheres of Influence
The Ruling Elite’s Power-Logistics
The Local Elites and the Room for Maneuver
Surveillance: How to Centralize Power Without Destroying Existing Patronage Structures
What If Panopticon Had Corners? Emerging Elites and the Shift of Resistance
Kyrgyzstan and Intermingling of Elites: Toward the Shadow State
Introduction
Price of Multiculturalism in the Age of Nationalism: An Enlightened President and the Legendary Parliament
A Revolutionary: “Southern” Elite Without the South
Sites of Intermingling
Bazaars and National Resources
Camp 31 and the Parliament
Institutions: A Legitimation Tool for the Monopoly Over Coercion and Economy
All-Representant: A Ragtag Parliament as a Move Toward a Shadow State
Conclusion
References
7 Conclusion: Keeping It Social
The Puzzle: Practice and Concepts
The Argument: Three Sets of Factors and State-Society Relations
Key Findings and Synopsis
In Terms of History or the Legacy of the Soviet Statehood
In Terms of External Actors
In Terms of Local Struggles Among the Competing Elites
So What? Broader Implications and Concluding Thoughts
On Bureaucracies and Institutions
On Decentralization of the State
On Civil Society and the NGO Sector
On Privatization and the Non-Standard Trade
Questions for Further Research
Think Polity with Politics: Questioning Capacity, Legitimacy, and Authority
Sources of Power: Why Economic Resources Do Not Equal Economic Power?
Westphalian Sovereignty: What Will We Make of It Without the Nation-State?
References
Bibliography
Index
