https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2990-6776
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Abstract
Kazakhstan’s National Council for Public Trust was created in response to the protests before and after the 2019 presidential elections and was promoted by the regime as a platform for dialogue between state and society. Such consultative institutions have been studied primarily through institutional–functional perspectives, which remain, however, unclear about the motives for setting up such councils and their effects. Based on an analysis of official narratives, this essay argues that Kazakhstan’s National Council was established to promote a consultative ideology that advocates for state-organised dialogue between citizens and the government. As part of Kazakhstan’s politics of stability, consultative ideology aimed at depoliticising requests for democratisation and civil society participation. However, as the regime did not fully deliver on its promise to involve relevant stakeholders and allow an open debate, official narratives were rejected by the protest movement and thus had limited depoliticising effects. It thus remains doubtful that consultative ideology will be effective and accepted by the general population.
Acknowledgements
The author would like to thank the anonymous reviewers and the editors of this special issue for very helpful suggestions. All these contributions have improved the final essay. All remaining errors are my own.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1 Available online at: https://ulttyq-kenes.kz/ru, accessed 1 September 2021.
2 Law № 383-V 3РК, ‘Zakon Respubliki Kazakhstan Ob obshchestvennykh sovetakh’, adopted 2 November 2015, available at: https://online.zakon.kz/Document/?doc_id=36800092, accessed 31 August 2021.
3 In Kyrgyzstan, ‘consultative democracy’ was promoted by President Kurmanbek Bakiyev (2005–2010) as a way to ‘strike a balance between the traditions and values of Kyrgyz nomadic society and the country’s development in the twenty-first century’, strongly linked to the country’s State Assembly, the Kurultai (Omelicheva Citation2015, p. 83).
4 This intentional but partly indirect depoliticisation is augmented by cultural patterns that evolve as part of larger transformations, as Bissenova argues in the case of Kazakhstan's ‘consumer-citizen’, who generally agrees with the economy-first narrative (Bissenova Citation2012, p. 26).
5 See also Jayasuriya and Rodan (Citation2007).
6 Politicisation is an important but not sufficient element of mobilisation. Mobilisation requires complex ‘collective action frames’, which, in order to be effective, must resonate with target audiences (Benford & Snow Citation2000, pp. 619–22).
7 For this purpose, I have used an inductive approach and identified narratives that have been put forward in the context of the National Council and made performative utterances about ‘wanted’ and ‘unwanted’ forms of participation. As discussed by Jayasuriya and Rodan (Citation2007, pp. 781–85) this includes questions of the who, how and where of civic participation, namely, which political processes take place, who participates, where participation takes place, the type of participation, which topics are negotiated and who decides on the who, how and where.
8 Available online at: https://www.kazPravda.kz/, accessed 1 September 2021.
9 ‘Chto sdelal za god Natsional’nyi sovet obshchestvennogo doveriya?’, Khabar 24, 14 October 2020, available at: https://24.kz/ru/tv-projects/novyj-kurs/item/429497-chto-sdelal-za-god-natsionalnyj-sovet-obshchestvennogo-doveriya-novyj-kurs, accessed 1 September 2021.
10 Available online at: https://www.vlast.kz, accessed 1 September 2021.
11 ‘Kazakhstan: Police Now Say They Detained 4,000’, Eurasianet, 18 June 2019, available at: https://eurasianet.org/kazakhstan-police-now-say-they-detained-4000, accessed 22 September 2021.
12 There are numerous NGOs and other non-governmental organisations in Kazakhstan, many of which are active in the social or economic spheres. However, there are no formally registered opposition groups or parties. In the early 2000s, a group within the political elite established an opposition organisation, the Democratic Choice of Kazakhstan (Demokraticheskyi vybor Kazakhstana), but it was banned as ‘extremist’ and its leader went into exile in London (Junisbai & Junisbai Citation2005; see also Lewis Citation2013). Members of Oyan, Qazaqstan! and Respublika were part of the 2019 protest movement, with younger people in their 20s and 30s playing a major role in Oyan, Qazaqstan!
13 Meetings were held on 6 September and 20 December 2019 and on 27 May 2020. The fourth meeting was held online on 20 October 2020. See: https://ulttyq-kenes.kz/ru, accessed 1 September 2021.
14 ‘Ob utverzhdenii polozheniya i sostava Natsional’nogo soveta obshchestvennogo doveriya pri Prezidente Respubliki Kazakhstan’, Akorda, 17 June 2019, available at: https://www.akorda.kz/ru/legal_acts/decrees/ob-utverzhdenii-polozheniya-i-sostava-nacionalnogo-soveta-obshchestvennogo-doveriya-pri-prezidente-respubliki-kazahstan, accessed 30 May 2021.
15 ‘Chto sdelal za god Natsional’nyi sovet obshchestvennogo doveriya?’, Khabar 24, 14 October 2020, available at: https://24.kz/ru/tv-projects/novyj-kurs/item/429497-chto-sdelal-za-god-natsionalnyj-sovet-obshchestvennogo-doveriya-novyj-kurs, accessed 1 September 2021.
16 ‘Priumnozhat’ tsennosti’, Kazakhstanskaya Pravda, 13 June 2019, available at: https://www.kazPravda.kz/fresh/view/priumnozhat-tsennosti, accessed 1 September 2021.
17 ‘Yerlan Karin: “Natssovet—eto ne tok-shou”’, Central Asia Monitor, 8 October 2020, available at: https://camonitor.kz/36060-erlan-karin-nacsovet-eto-ne-tok-shou.html, accessed 1 September 2021.
18 ‘Chto sdelal za god Natsional’nyi sovet obshchestvennogo doveriya?’, Khabar 24, 14 October 2020, available at: https://24.kz/ru/tv-projects/novyj-kurs/item/429497-chto-sdelal-za-god-natsionalnyj-sovet-obshchestvennogo-doveriya-novyj-kurs, accessed 1 September 2021.
19 ‘Chto sdelal za god Natsional’nyi sovet obshchestvennogo doveriya?’, Khabar 24, 14 October 2020, available at: https://24.kz/ru/tv-projects/novyj-kurs/item/429497-chto-sdelal-za-god-natsionalnyj-sovet-obshchestvennogo-doveriya-novyj-kurs, accessed 1 September 2021.
20 In February 2021, the European Parliament adopted a resolution on the human rights situation in Kazakhstan, referring, among other things, to continued defamation lawsuits against journalists and human rights activists (European Parliament Citation2021).
21 ‘Kasym-Zhomart Tokayev dal interv’yu nemetskoi teleradiokompanii Deutsche Welle’, Kazakhstanskaya Pravda, 4 December 2019, available at: https://www.kazPravda.kz/news/prezident2/kasim-zhomart-tokaev-dal-intervu-nemetskoi-teleradiokompanii-deutsche-welle, accessed 1 September 2021.
22 ‘Report on the Monitoring of the Right to Freedom of Peaceful Assembly in the Republic of Kazakhstan in 2018–2020’, Kazakhstan International Bureau for Human Rights and the Rule of Law, 2020, p. 69, available at: https://bureau.kz/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/2021_report-pa.pdf, accessed 28 May 2021.
23 ‘Lyudi—eto novaya neft’, Khabar 24, 23 October 2020, available at: https://24.kz/ru/tv-projects/novyj-kurs/item/431547-lyudi-eto-novaya-neft-novyj-kurs, accessed 1 September 2021.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Sebastian Schiek
Sebastian Schiek, Institute for East European Studies, Freie Universität Berlin, Garystr. 55, 14195 Berlin, Germany. Email: [email protected]