scholarly journals Elite preferences and transparency promotion in Kazakhstan

2017 ◽  
Vol 50 (2) ◽  
pp. 135-143 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kerem Öge

This paper evaluates the factors that shape the establishment of transparent institutions in resource-rich countries with a specific focus on Kazakhstan. Specifically, it draws upon indepth interviews and analysis of key institutions to understand the pace and intensity of transparency reforms in the Central Asian state. It argues that external transparency promotion can lead to institutional reform only when it is matched with strong elite incentives in favor of reforms. Kazakhstan has had few incentives to comply with Western-initiated norms before 2014, an era of relative economic security. As a consequence, the political elite often stalled the successful implementation of reforms. However, the economic turbulence following the fall of oil prices and Russia’s annexation of Crimea have motivated the Kazakh government to embrace the norm of transparency in order to attract foreign investment.

Subject The car import debate and dynamics of the social contract. Significance A longstanding weakness of the Algerian economy has been its overdependence on oil and gas for income, and on imports for consumption. The risks of this dependence were exposed when oil prices halved in the final quarter of 2014. The government has responded by trying to revive investment in both the oil and non-oil economy, and by seeking to curb imports. One important aspect of this latter policy -- new restrictions on car imports -- has sparked significant public debate and raised questions about the government's competence and political will. Impacts If the oil price sustains its recent rally to 60-65 dollars per barrel, the government will have some time to adjust. It would also allow the political elite to maintain the current balance of power. Algeria will not close its markets to foreign imports so long as it continues to seek WTO membership.


Author(s):  
Rebecca Engebretsen ◽  
Ricardo Soares de Oliveira

As in other resource-rich countries, the financial sector in Angola plays a key role in facilitating outgoing financial flows. The political allocation of credit and issuing of bank licenses to insiders have been an important avenue for securing support for the regime. The result has been strong opposition to the ratcheting-up of bank regulation and supervision. Yet a balance-of-payments crisis in 2009, falling in oil prices from 2014, and changes in the global regulatory environment together meant that divergence from international standards was no longer an option. For Angolan banks to maintain their links to the global financial market, the country needed to signal its readiness to regulate the sector in line with international standards. Nonetheless, because the politicized nature of the banking sector has not changed, standards are either not implemented or are implemented but not enforced, leading to a situation of ‘mock compliance’.


2010 ◽  
Vol 45 (1) ◽  
pp. 31-56 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Walls ◽  
Steve Kibble

Many African states struggle to reconcile traditional social institutions with the precepts of nation-state democracy within colonially defined borders. Since the 1991 fall of the dictatorial Somali regime of Siyaad Barre, Somaliland has gradually pieced together what appear to be a durable peace and an increasingly sophisticated, constitutionally based nation-state democracy. It is still negotiating the relationship between identity, nation and territory in which there is a differential commitment to democracy between the political elite and the wider population. Accommodation between a clan-based social structure and a representative democracy has been enabled by local socio-cultural traditions. External intervention, while minimal, has on occasion proved fruitful in providing a way out of crises. The territory has escaped the violence and political breakdown experienced in Southern Somali areas. This contribution argues that the remarkable resilience of the present socio-political system in Somaliland is challenged by present and forthcoming problems in the fields of democratic representation (inter alia of women), delivery of public goods, a fragile sub-regional context and foreign investment.


2020 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. 29-38
Author(s):  
Oydinkhon akhtiyorzoda ◽  

The Article being considered the history of the creation and development of geological science in Uzbekistan using the example of the activities of scientists from Central Asian State University and Tashkent State University.Special attention is paid to the study of the practical orientation of geological surveys, fieldwork and laboratory research. As well as, shown is the phased discoveries, based on the research of University staff and their training of scientific personnel, specialized research institutions in the field of geology


Author(s):  
Yangiboeva Dilnoza Uktamovna ◽  

The article describes the influence of the Russian Empire on the socio-political life of the Emirate of Bukhara in the late XIX - early XX centuries during the reign of Mangit emirs Muzaffar (1860-1885), Abdulahad (1885-1910) and Alimkhan (1910-1920). There were many people who looked at this country, which has beautiful nature, fertile soil and rich in minerals. The Central Asian khanates, which were part of a constantly changing world, did not undergo renewal, despite their obsolescence. At the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th centuries, when the Emirate of Bukhara became politically and economically full of the policy of the Russian Empire and officially became its vassal, many historical events took place in its social life.


Author(s):  
K.E. Goldschmitt

Bossa Mundo chronicles how Brazilian music has been central to Brazil’s national brand in the United States and the United Kingdom since the late 1950s. Scholarly texts on Brazilian popular music generally focus on questions of music and national identity, and when they discuss the music’s international popularity, they keep the artists, recordings, and live performances as the focus, ignoring the process of transnational mediation. This book fills a major gap in Brazilian music studies by analyzing the consequences of moments when Brazilian music was popular in Anglophone markets, with a focus on the media industries. With subject matter as varied as jazz, film music, dance fads, DJ/remix culture, and new models of musical distribution, the book demonstrates how the mediation of Brazilian music in an increasingly crowded transnational marketplace has had lasting consequences for the creative output celebrated by Brazil as part of its national brand. Through a discussion of the political meaning of mass-mediated music in chronologically organized chapters, the book shifts the scholarly focus on the music’s transnational popularity from the scholarly framework of representing Otherness to broader considerations of a media environment where listeners and intermediaries often have differing priorities. The book provides a new model for studying music from culturally rich countries in the Global South where local governments often leverage stereotypes in their national branding project.


Author(s):  
Shaun Bowler

This chapter analyzes to what extent variation in political institutions affects political support. The chapter observes that the existing research is not always clear on which institutions should produce what kind of effect, although a general expectation is that institutional arrangements improve political support when they give citizens an increased sense of connection to the political process. In general then, we should expect institutions that strengthen the quality of representation to strengthen political support. This general expectation is specified in six hypotheses that are tested using data from the ESS 2012. The chapter demonstrates that electoral systems that provide voters with more choice about candidates, multiparty governments, and “responsive” legislatures, correlate positively with political support. However, compared to other macro-level factors and individual characteristics, the effects of political institutions on political support are modest. The chapter concludes that the prospects for institutional reform to strengthen political support are limited.


1967 ◽  
Vol 2 (4) ◽  
pp. 509-524 ◽  
Author(s):  
B. J. O. Dudley

In the debate on the Native Authority (Amendment) Law of 1955, the late Premier of the North, Sir Ahmadu Bello, Sardauna of Sokoto, replying to the demand that ‘it is high time in the development of local government systems in this Region that obsolete and undemocratic ways of appointing Emirs’ Councils should close’, commented that ‘the right traditions that we have gone away from are the cutting off of the hands of thieves, and that has caused a lot of thieving in this country. Why should we not be cutting (off) the hands of thieves in order to reduce thieving? That is logical and it is lawful in our tradition and custom here.’ This could be read as a defence against social change, a recrudescence of ‘barbarism’ after the inroads of pax Britannica, and a plea for the retention of the status quo and the entrenched privilege of the political elite.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document