Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-l7hp2 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-26T20:59:09.260Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

What use was the election to us? Clientelism and political trust amongst ethnic Uzbeks in Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 November 2018

Brent Hierman
Brent Hierman*
Affiliation:
Political Science, Indiana University, Bloomington, USA
*
* Email: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This paper posits that a great deal of cross-national variation in clientelistic investment strategies can be explained through an examination of the different forms of risk faced by the political elite of different types of regimes. It also maintains that demand from clients/potential clients is, by itself, insufficient to explain the level or scope of clientelistic investments. The argument is advanced through an examination of the linkages (and non-linkages) between patrons/potential patrons and clients/potential clients amongst the ethnic Uzbek populations of Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. In Kyrgyzstan, a semi-authoritarian state, electoral risk predominates; however, the character of electoral risk in Kyrgyzstan provides Uzbek members of the political elite with an incentive to diversify their clientelistic investments. Consequently, many engage in direct exchanges with their constituents while simultaneously investing in private, cultural organizations that serve party-like functions. Alternatively, in contemporary Tajikistan, best described as an authoritarian state, electoral risk has been replaced with the risk of expulsion from the presidential clientelistic network. As a result, members of the Tajikistani political elite have a disincentive to publicly invest in constituent clients as this investment may increase the risk of expulsion.

Keywords

ethnicityclientelismpolitical trustCentral Asia
Type
Articles
Information
Nationalities Papers , Volume 38 , Issue 2 , March 2010 , pp. 245 - 263
Copyright
Copyright © 2010 Association for the Study of Nationalities 

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

Auyero, Javier. “From the Client's Point(s) of View: How Poor People Perceive and Evaluate Political Clientelism.” Theory and Society 28. 2 (1999): 297–334, Print.Google Scholar
Boboev, Akramjon. “Qurultoydan so'ng qurultoy.” Mezon (Osh) 25 Apr. 2008: 1–2. Print.Google Scholar
Chandra, Kanchan. Why Ethnic Parties Succeed: Patronage and Ethnic Head Counts in India. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge UP, 2004. Print.Google Scholar
Fearon, James D. “Why Ethnic Politics and ‘Pork’ Tend to Go Together.”, Mimeo. Stanford University, 1999. Print.Google Scholar
Ferrando, Olivier. “Manipulating the Census: Ethnic Minorities in the Nationalizing States of Central Asia.” Nationalities Papers 36.3 (2008): 489–520. Print.Google Scholar
Fumagalli, Matteo. “Framing Ethnic Minority Mobilisation in Central Asia: The Cases of Uzbeks in Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan.” Europe-Asia Studies 59.4 (2007): 567–90. Print.Google Scholar
Fumagalli, Matteo. “Informal Ethnopolitics and Local Authority Figures in Osh, Kyrgyzstan.” Ethnopolitics 6.2 (2007): 211–33. Print.Google Scholar
Hale, Henry E. “Correlates of Clientelism: Political Economy, Politicized Ethnicity, and Post-Communist Transition.” Patrons, Clients, and Policies: Patterns of Democratic Accountability and Political Competition. Ed. Kitschelt, Herbert and Wilkinson, Steven I. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge UP, 2007: 227–51. Print.Google Scholar
International Crisis Group. Kyrgyzstan: A Deceptive Calm?, Asia Briefing no. 79. Bishkek/Brussels, 14 Mar. 2008. Print.Google Scholar
International Crisis Group. Tajikistan: On the Road to Failure. Asia Report no. 162. Dushanbe/Brussels, 12 Feb. 2009. Print.Google Scholar
Khamidov, Alisher. “Forging Broken Links: Uzbeks and the State in Kyrgyzstan.” Newsletter of the Institute for Public Policy: Kyrgyzstan Brief 6 (Sept.–Oct. 2006): 11–16, Web. 12 Sept. 2007. <http://ipp.kg/files/publications/KG_Brief_6_eng.pdf>..>Google Scholar
Kitschelt, Herbert, and Wilkinson, Steven I. “Citizen–Politician Linkages: An Introduction.” Patrons, Clients, and Policies: Patterns of Democratic Accountability and Political Competition, Cambridge and New York: Cambridge UP, 2007: 1–49. Print.Google Scholar
Lemarchand, René. “Political Clientelism and Ethnicity in Tropical Africa: Competing Solidarities in Nation Building.” American Political Science Review 66.1 (1972): 68–90, Print.Google Scholar
Lynch, Dov. “Separatist States and Post-Soviet Conflicts.” International Affairs 78.4 (2002): 831–48. Print.Google Scholar
Magaloni, Beatriz, Diaz-Cayeros, Alberto, and Estévez, Federico. “Clientelism and Portfolio Diversification: A Model of Electoral Investment with Applications to Mexico.” Patrons, Clients, and Policies: Patterns of Democratic Accountability and Political Competition. Ed. Kitschelt, Herbert and Wilkinson, Steven I., Cambridge and New York: Cambridge UP, 2007: 182–206. Print.Google Scholar
Markowitz, Lawrence P. “Collapsed and Prebendal States in Post-Soviet Eurasia: Cross-Regional Determinants of State Formation in Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.” Diss. U of Wisconsin-Madison, 2005. Print Diss. U of Wisconsin-Madison, 2005. Print.Google Scholar
Müller, Wolfgang C. “Political institutions and linkage strategies.” Patrons, Clients and Policies: Patterns of Democratic Accountability and Political Competition. Ed. Kitschelt, Herbert and Wilkinson, Steven I., Cambridge and New York: Cambridge UP, 2007: 251–275. Print.Google Scholar
OSCE. Republic of Tajikistan Parliamentary Elections: OSCE/ODIHR Election Observation Mission Final Report. Web. 20 Oct. 2006. <http://www.osce.org/documents/odihr/2005/05/14852_en.pdf>..>Google Scholar
Piattoni, Simona “Clientelism in Historical and Comparative Perspective.” ed. Clientism, Interests, and Democratic Representation: The European Experience in Historical and Comparative Perspective. Ed. Piattoni, Simona. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2001. 1–31, Print.Google Scholar
Radnitz, Scott. “It Takes More than a Village: Mobilization, Networks, and the State in Central Asia.” Diss. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2007. Print.Google Scholar
Scott, James C. “Patron Client Politics and Political Change in Southeast Asia.” American Political Science Review 66.1 (1972): 91–113. Print.Google Scholar
Shefter, Martin. Political Parties and the State: The American Historical Experience. Princeton: Princeton UP, 1994. Print.Google Scholar
Smyth, Regina, Lowry, Anna, and Wilkening, Brandon. “Engineering Victory: Institutional Reform, Informal Institutions, and the Formation of a Hegemonic Party Regime in the Russian Federation.” Post-Soviet Affairs 23.2 (2007): 118–37. Print.Google Scholar
Stokes, Susan C. “Political Clientelism.” The Oxford Handbook of Comparative Politics. Ed. Boix, Carles and Stokes, Susan C. New York: Oxford UP, 2007: 604–27. Print.Google Scholar
Van de Walle, Nicolas. “Meet the New Boss, Same as the Old Boss? The Evolution of Political Clientelism in Africa.” Patrons, Clients, and Policies: Patterns of Democratic Accountability and Political Competition. Ed. Kitschelt, Herbert and Wilkinson, Steven I., Cambridge and New York: Cambridge UP, 2007: 50–67. Print.Google Scholar