Revisiting the role of civic organizations in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan: Confidence, membership, and democratic practice
| Published date | 01 February 2023 |
| Author | Temirlan T. Moldogaziev,Christopher Witko |
| Date | 01 February 2023 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1002/pad.1987 |
Received: 19 November 2021
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Revised: 13 April 2022
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Accepted: 17 May 2022
DOI: 10.1002/pad.1987
RESEARCH ARTICLE
Revisiting the role of civic organizations in Kazakhstan,
Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan: Confidence, membership, and
democratic practice
Temirlan T. Moldogaziev
|Christopher Witko
School of Public Policy, The Pennsylvania State
University, University Park, Pennsylvania, USA
Correspondence
Temirlan T. Moldogaziev, School of Public
Policy, The Pennsylvania State University, 324
Pond Laboratory, University Park, PA, 16802,
USA.
Email: timatm@psu.edu
Abstract
In many emerging and authoritarian countries, civil society organizations that focus
on political or sensitive policy issues are being cracked down upon, while service‐
oriented ones are given a relatively greater ability to operate. What might the
consequence of this be for democratic practice given the important role civic or-
ganizations play in this process? We examine this question by considering whether
the absence of confidence in a country's governing institutions is related to mem-
bership in service‐rather than governance‐focused civic organizations, and how
such membership is associated with elite‐challenging, political activities in
Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan. We find that individuals who have no
confidence in state institutions are less likely to seek membership in governance‐
focused civic organizations, but not necessarily in service‐focused ones. At the
same time, membership in both types of civic organizations is associated with
participation in political activities, while beliefs that a country is run democratically
decreases it. This suggests that a variety of civic organizational types, even those
without an explicit governance‐focus, contingent on perceptions of democratic
governance and other covariates held constant, enhance democratic practice.
KEYWORDS
civic organizations, confidence in institutions, perceived democratic practice, political action
1
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INTRODUCTION
As recently as the summer of 2021, Kyrgyzstan's President Sadyr
Japarov signed a bill into law that would increase reporting re-
quirements for non‐governmental organizations (NGOs) doing work
in his country. Some critics of the law saw it as a thinly veiled attack
on organizations that have been investigating and exposing corrup-
tion among high‐ranking officials in his government (Talant, 2021).
This also coincides with a designation by leading international
watchdogs that the country is now firmly under an authoritarian rule
(Freedom House, 2019,2021), which indiscriminately harasses op-
position figures, news outlets, and even ordinary individuals who post
on social media platforms. After years of flirting with democracy,
such backsliding into authoritarianism in Kyrgyzstan is weakening
democratic practices in the country and is shrinking the existing
platforms for democratic voice.
Similar legislation has been in the works in Tajikistan, with a
particular focus on foreign funding sources of local NGOs
(Jamshed, 2020), while two separate NGO bills were enacted in
Kazakhstan in 2015 and 2016, which reportedly allow tax authorities
in the country to harass civic organizations (Human Rights
Watch, 2020). This trend aligns with events elsewhere, whereby in
authoritarian countries, developing democracies, and backsliding
democracies (e.g., Hungary, Poland, Russia, and Turkey) civil society
organizations (CSOs) that are focused on improving governance have
become subject to increased scrutiny by host governments in recent
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Public Admin Dev. 2023;43:26–37.wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/pad© 2022 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
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