Public Administration Academies in Central Asia: ‘Government puppets’ or independent seats of learning?
| Author | Saltanat Janenova |
| DOI | 10.1177/0144739419886624 |
| Published date | 01 July 2020 |
| Date | 01 July 2020 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
Article
Public Administration
Academies in Central Asia:
‘Government puppets’
or independent seats
of learning?
Saltanat Janenova
Nazarbayev University, Kazakhstan
Abstract
This article provides a critical analysis of the development of public administration
education in the context of five post-Soviet, transitional, and authoritarian Central Asian
countries: Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan from early
independence to the present time (1991–2019). The study is based on a review of
Master of Public Administration (MPA) programmes offered by Public Administration
Academies in each of these five Central Asian countries, a focus group with local
academics, extensive secondary data analysis, and critical reflections of a local scholar
with six years of MPA teaching experience in a Kazakhstani university. This article
highlights context-specific challenges in design and implementation of the MPA pro-
grammes in Central Asia. These challenges include the: ambiguous role of Public
Administration Academies; programme design; pedagogical issues; and weak research
capacity. It is argued that the MPA programmes in Central Asia often provide an example
of ‘mimicry’ of European/North American programmes with peculiar features of their
local context. Public Administration Academies in Central Asia are highly politicised and
strongly controlled by authoritarian governments. This study will be of particular
interest not only to public administration scholars from all post-Soviet countries which
share the Soviet legacy and socio-economic challenges, but also for scholars teaching in
other authoritarian contexts.
Keywords
Public Administration Academy, Central Asia, peer learning, authoritarian regime
Corresponding author:
Saltanat Janenova, Nazarbayev University, Graduate School of Public Policy, 53 Kabanbay Batyr Avenue,
Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan.
Email: saltanat.janenova@nu.edu.kz; Telephone: þ7 717 2709151
Teaching Public Administration
2020, Vol. 38(2) 126–143
ªThe Author(s) 2019
Article reuse guidelines:
sagepub.com/journals-permissions
DOI: 10.1177/0144739419886624
journals.sagepub.com/home/tpa
Introduction
In the developed democracies ‘teaching of public administration – articulating such
values as ensuring public accountability, serving the people, eschewing corruption, and
facilitating transparency and rule of law – goes hand in hand with promoting democratic
practices and beliefs’ (Schultz, 2014: 145). This argument is strongly supported by the
existing scholarship of public administration education which is mainly contributed by
the scholars from Anglo-American, English-speaking countries, following the main-
stream Master of Public Administration (MPA) pattern set up by leading North Amer-
ican and Western universities (Chapman, 1978; Coxhead et al., 2010). The literature on
teaching practices in the public administration field in the post-Communist Central
and Eastern Europe has rapidly grown in the recent years (see, for example, Gajduschek
and Hajnal, 2003; Hajnal, 2003; Randma-Liiv and Connaughton, 2005; Staronova and
Gajduschek, 2016).
However, the post-Soviet region with a largest concentration of authoritarian
governments remains under-researched in this regard. More recently, growing atten-
tion has been given to Russia’s experience. Scavo et al. (2006) examine the design and
implementation of the first MPA programme in Russia at the Urals Academy of Public
Administration in Yekaterinburg highlighting a number of pedagogical issues, limited
research funding, and staff capacity problems. Pryadilnikov (2016) provides a review
of evolution of Master level public policy and administration education in Russia in the
past 25 years focusing on the changes in the curricula, experiences of the main insti-
tutions in public policy, and administration graduate training (Russian Academy of the
National Economy and Public Administration, Moscow State University, and H igher
School of Economics), and the legal framework regulating the standar ds for teaching
and research in the field. Pryadilnikov (2016) argues that MPA/Master of Public Policy
programmes in Russia have selectively adopted international standards which resulted
in some convergence and isomorphism with those standards, containing specifics of
the Russian context.
Nezhina and Barabashev (2019) have tested the association between culturally
determined measures of prosocial motives of Russian MPA students and their
intention to work for government upon graduation using three theoretical frame-
works: public administration; political trust; and volunteering. They have foun d that
Russian MPA students with prosocial motives tend to choose work in government,
and that formal and informal volunteering is not related to choosing work in
government.
In a more recent study, Jakel and Borshchevskiy (2019) investigate working sector
choices among undergraduate students of public administration in two reputable
Moscow universities revealing that parents working in the civil service are the most
important public sector career motivators of students in Russia, more important than
positive perceptions of public sector compensation and its impact on society. Nemec
et al. (2015) have conducted analysis of public administration programmes in the post-
Soviet Caucasus countries (Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia) identifying a range of
problems in design and delivery of the MPA programmes including a shortage of
Janenova 127
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