Decentralization and Democracy in Post-Soviet Kyrgyzstan

• In Event: The Subnational Turn (I): Decentralization and Political Economy

Abstract

During the 1990s, a conventional wisdom emerged, based on literature going back decades, that political decentralization might be among the most effective forces for democratization. If ordinary people could participate in autonomous local governments, democracy would be built from the ground up, ultimately shaping the entire political system. Once decentralization reforms were implemented across the world, however, the results were disappointing. Authoritarianism not only thrived at the local level, it could also undermine democratization at the national level. Thus, local-national transference still held, but sometimes as a poison. In this context, the case of post-Soviet Kyrgyzstan is an anomaly. I argue that the relative success of decentralization in Kyrgyzstan—rather than its failure—helped undermine democratization at the national level. Decentralization allowed national authorities to appease international donors while they consolidated their own power. Moreover, while decentralization empowered local communities, it did so in ways that personalized authority, resulting in intense localism and antagonistic center-local relations. The case study findings are based on ten months of field research, which includes interviews with local and national officials, ordinary villagers, and representatives of NGOs and international organizations.

Author

• Dave Siegel, St. Joseph's College