Combating open society threats: regionalism, nepotism, corruption

 

Recommendations for NGOs of the Kyrgyz Republic

 

(here you can find the research paper PDF 136 Kb)

 

 

The project was accomplished in October 2007.

 

The problem encountered by the democratic development, and the state-building in the Kyrgyz Republic is endemic corruption and nepotism generated by the “traditional” social structure (uruuchuluk), which has been transformed by the Soviet rule, but however survived this experience of a social modeling.

Nepotism (uruuchuluk) penetrates all levels of the state structure. Deputy factions in the national parliament are mainly formed by the principle of regional affiliation, although they have ideological screens. Illegal access to resources in governmental organizations (custom service, tax police) is also based on the same principle.

            How to fight against this problem?

During 70 years the Soviet authority had been trying to eradicate the practice of uruuchuluk from the Kyrgyz society. However, they did not achieve much success in this attempt. Fourteen years of Kyrgyz independence pointed out that this problem has not been resolved, but only aggravated.

 But, is it really necessary to eradicate this social practice?

If it still exists it is because it has a utility, because it has a special function that Kyrgyz society probably needs. The utility, which still cannot be provided by the state: social security for example.

 The objective of the project is to find answer on the questions:

- Is there another way to combat the social practice of uruuchuluk?

- Is it possible to create state institutions and mechanisms, which would take into consideration this social particularity?

 

 

 

My group advisors

 

Stephen Kotkin is Professor of European and Asian history at Princeton University, where he also directs the Russian Studies Program. He serves on the Editorial Board and Trustees of Princeton University Press and on the Executive Committee of the Princeton Institute for International and Regional Studies (PIIRS). Outside Princeton, he serves on the Social Science Research Council (SSRC) Advisory Committee and as a consultant to a number of foundations. He has authored, co-authored, or edited nine books, including Magnetic Mountain (1995), Armageddon Averted (2001), and Political Corruption in Transition: A Handbook (2002). He has been a visiting professor in Russia and Japan, and is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship. He writes reviews and essays for The New Yorker, The New York Review of Books, The New York Times, Financial Times, The New Republic, and the TLS. He is also a commentator on the BBC and National Public Radio (NPR). His current project—“Lost in Siberia: Dreamworlds of Eurasia”—is a study of the Ob River basin over the last seven centuries. He earned a PhD and MA from the University of California at Berkeley.

Vadim Volkov (IPF Group Advisor, Combating Open Society Threats; 2005-6 Group Advisor, Developing Socially Responsible Elites and the Challenges of Higher Education) is Chair of Sociology Department at The Higher School of Economics, St. Petersburg Branch, and Associate Professor of Sociology at the Department of Political Science and Sociology at the European University in St. Petersburg (EUSP). He is currently Marie Curie Fellow of the European Commission at the Institute for Advanced Studies in Berlin. In 1999-2001, he was Social Science Research Council/MacArthur Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow for the International Peace and Security Program. In 1998 he was a visiting professor in history at the University of Chicago. He is the author of Violent Entrepreneurs: The Use of Force in the Making of Russian Capitalism (Cornell University Press, 2002) and articles focusing on social research, politics and society, and Europe-Asia studies. His research interests include economic sociology, problems of state and violence, public and private security, comparative mafia, sociology of everyday life, and politics in cultural contexts. He earned a PhD from the University of Cambridge, UK, and Higher Education Degree from Leningrad State University.

 

 

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