Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t8hqh Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-29T11:15:44.507Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Grievance Practices in Post-Soviet Kyrgyz Agriculture

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 December 2018

Kelley E. Cormier
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This article examines legal consciousness in action as expressed in grievances arising from commercial transactions among sellers and buyers in the new post-Soviet economy of Kyrgyzstan. Using focus groups, direct observation, and participant observation, I investigate the transformation of disputes between Kyrgyz vegetable growers and processors. My data show variation in the way grievances are dealt with among Kyrgyz farmers. Farmers opt out of the contractual relationship, remain in the relationship, or practice a combination of the two over time. The farmers included in this study did not seek legal remedies through the court system. Data also reveal that expressions of grievances transform in tandem with an evolution of feelings—from anger and distrust to understanding and even sympathy for the party responsible for the grievance.

Type
2006 Graduate Student Paper Competition: The Winning Essays
Information
Law & Social Inquiry , Volume 32 , Issue 2 , Spring 2007 , pp. 435 - 466
Copyright
Copyright © American Bar Foundation, 2007 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Arnott, Richard, and Stiglitz, Joseph. 1991. Moral Hazard and Nonmarket Institutions: Dysfunctional Crowding Out or Peer Monitoring. American Economic Review 80 (1): 179–90.Google Scholar
Belova, Eugenia. 2001. Contract Enforcement Under Dictatorship: the case of the Soviet economy. PERSA Working Paper No. 14, Department of Economics, University of Warwick.Google Scholar
Bobukeeva, Meerghul. 2005. Sudy Aksakalov. Treteiskii Sud Informatsionnyi Byulleten’ [The Court of Elders. The Third Party Arbitration Court Information Bulletin], No. 13, Kalis Konsalt, October: 1–4.Google Scholar
Boisot, M., and Child, J. 1996. From Fiefs to Clans and Network Capitalism: Explaining China's Emerging Economic Order. Administrative Science Quarterly 41:600–28.Google Scholar
Bromley, Daniel W. 2000. A Most Difficult Passage: the Economic Transition in Central and Eastern Europe and the Former Soviet Union. EMERGO, Journal of Transforming Economies and Societies 7 (3): 3–23.Google Scholar
Bromley, Daniel W. 2006. Sufficient Reason: Volitional Pragmatism and the Meaning of Economic Institutions. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Commons, John R. 1934. Institutional Economics: Its Place in Political Economy. New York: Macmillan.Google Scholar
Commons, John R. . 1968. Legal Foundations of Capitalism. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press.Google Scholar
Felstiner, William L.F., Richard, L. Abel, and Sarat, Austin. 198081. The Emergence and Transformation of Disputes: Naming, Blaming, Claiming.… Law & Society Review 15 (3/4): 631–54 (Special Issue on Dispute Processing and Civil Litigation).Google Scholar
Gambetta, Diego, ed. 1988. Trust: Making and Breaking Cooperative Relations. New York: Basil Blackwell.Google Scholar
Giovarelli, Renee, and Akmatava, Cholpon. 2002. Local Institutions that Enforce Customary Law in the Kyrgyz Republic and Their Impact on Women's Rights. Agriculture & Rural Development E-Paper, World Bank. http://72.14.203.104/search?q=cache:SsN29FwZb-0J:www-wds.worldbank.org/servlet/WDSContentServer/WDSP/IB/2003/12/05/000160016_20031205161451/Rendered/PDF/270080Ag0e1paper0Kyrgyz1local.pdf+%22Giovarelli%22+%22Local=Institutions+*+Enforce%22&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=1 (accessed December 2006).Google Scholar
Gow, Hamish, Deborah, Streeter, and Swinnen, Johan. 2000. How private contract enforcement mechanisms can succeed where public institutions fail: the case of Juhocukor a.s. Agricultural Economics 23 (3): 253–65.Google Scholar
Gow, Hamish, and Swinnen, Johann. 2001. Private Enforcement Capital and Contract Enforcement in Transition Economies. American Journal of Agricultural Economics 83 (3): 686–90.Google Scholar
Granovetter, Mark. 1985. Economic Action and Social Structure: the Problem of Embeddedness. American Journal of Sociology 9 (3): 481–510.Google Scholar
Gray, Cheryl, and Hendley, Kathryn. 1995. Developing Commercial Law in Transition Economies: Examples from Hungary and Russia. Policy Research Working Paper #1528. The World Bank. Policy Research Department, Transition Economics Division, November.Google Scholar
Greif, Avner. 1993. Contract Enforceability and Economic Institutions in Early Trade: The Maghribi Traders’ Coalition. American Economic Review 83:525–48.Google Scholar
Greif, Avner, and Kandel, Eugene. 1995. Contract Enforcement Institutions: Historical Perspective and Current Status in Russia. In Economic Transition in Eastern Europe and Russia: Realities of Reform, ed. Lazear, E.P. Stanford, CA: Hoover Institution Press.Google Scholar
Helvetas. 2003. Project Legal Assistance to Rural Citizens—LARC Phase II KR20A/KR50A, Yearly Report. Helvetas Kyrgyzstan.Google Scholar
Hendley, Kathryn. 1997. Legal Development in Post-Soviet Russia. Post-Soviet Affairs, 13 (3): 228–51.Google Scholar
Hendley, Kathryn. 2002. Attitudes vs. Behavior: Towards an Explanation of the Use of Law by Russian Enterprises. Paper prepared for the Conference on Informal Institutions and Politics in the Developing World, Weatherhead Center for International Affairs, Harvard University, April 5–6.Google Scholar
Hendley, Kathryn, Peter, Murrell, and Ryterman, Randi. 2000. Law, Relationships, and Private Enforcement: Transactional Strategies of Russian Enterprises. Europe-Asia Studies 18 (4): 627–56.Google Scholar
Hirschman, Albert O. 1970. Exit, Voice, and Loyalty: Responses to Decline in Firms, Organizations and States. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Hoffman, Elizabeth. 2003. Legal Consciousness and Dispute Resolution: Different Disputing Behavior at Two Similar Taxicab Companies. Law & Social Inquiry 28 (3): 691–716.Google Scholar
Johnson, Simon, John, McMillan, and Woodruff, Christopher. 2002. Contract Enforcement in Transition. MIT Sloan Working Paper No. 4338-02 and Stanford Law and Economics Olin Working Paper No. 227, January.Google Scholar
Kali, Raja. 2001. Business Networks in Transition Economies: Norms, Contracts, and Legal Institutions. In Assessing the Value of Law in Transition Economies, ed. Murrell, Peter, 211–28. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.Google Scholar
Kas'ianova, K. 1994. O Russkom Natsional'nom Kharaktere. Institutnatsional'noi modeli ekonomiki [About the Russian National Character. The Institute of National Economic Models], Moskva.Google Scholar
Kenebaev, T. O. 2004. Treteiskii Sud v Kyrgyzstane: nastoyashchee i budushchee. Treteiskii Sud Informatsionyi Byulleten’ [The Third Party Arbitration Court in Kyrgyzstan: present and future. The Third Party Arbitration Court Information Bulletin], No. 9, Kalys Konsalt, March 6–7.Google Scholar
Kostiner, Idit. 2003. Evaluating Legality: Toward a Cultural Approach to the Study of Law and Social Change. Law & Social Inquiry 37 (2): 323–68.Google Scholar
Kranton, Rachel. 1996. Reciprocal Exchange: A Self Sustaining System. American Economic Review 86:830–51.Google Scholar
Kroll, Heidi. 1985. Law and Plan: An Economic Analysis of Commercial Relations in Soviet Industry. PhD diss., Department of Economics, University of California, Berkeley.Google Scholar
Kroll, Heidi. 1988. The Role of Contracts in the Soviet Economy. Soviet Studies 40 (3): 349–66.Google Scholar
Kronman, Anthony 1985. Contract Law and the State of Nature. Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization 1 (1): 5–32.Google Scholar
Ledeneva, Alena. 1998. Russia's economy of favours: Blat, networking and informal exchange. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Macaulay, Stewart. 1963. Non-contractual Relations in Business: A Preliminary Study. American Sociological Review 45:55–69.Google Scholar
Macneil, Ian. 1974. Restatement (Second) of Contracts and Presentiation. Virginia Law Review 60 (4): 589–610.Google Scholar
Macneil, Ian. 1986. Exchange Revisited: Individual Utility and Social Solidarity. Ethics 96 (3): 567–93.Google Scholar
Marshall, Anna-Maria, and Barclay, Scott. 2003. In Their Own Words: How Ordinary People Construct the Legal World. Law & Social Inquiry 28 (3): 617–28.Google Scholar
Sarat, Austin, and Kearns, Thomas, eds. 1995. Beyond the Great Divide: Forms of Legal Scholarship and Everyday Life. In Law in Everyday Life. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.Google Scholar
Schmid, Allan. 1992. Legal Foundations of the Market: Implications for the Formerly Socialist Countries of Eastern Europe and Africa. Journal of Economic Issues 26 (3): 707–31.Google Scholar
Suchman, Mark. 2003. The Contract as Social Artifact. Law & Society Review 37 (1): 91–142.Google Scholar
Tynymgul’, Eshieva. 2004. LARK na strazhe interesov sel'chan. Treteiskii Sud Informatsionyi Byulleten’[LARK guards the interests of peasants. The Third Party Arbitration Information Bulletin], No. 10, Kalys Konsalt, October 9–10.Google Scholar
Woolsy-Biggart, N., and Hamilton, G. 1992. On the Limits of a Firm-Based Theory to Explain Business Networks: The Western Bias of Neoclassical Economics. In Networks and Organization, ed. Nohria, Nitin and Eccles, Robert. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Business School Press.Google Scholar
Xin, K., and Pearce, J. 1996. Guanxi: Connections as Substitutes for Formal Institutional Support. Academy of Management Journal 39 (6): 1641–58.Google Scholar