State responses to reputational concerns: the case of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative in Kazakhstan

ABSTRACT

This article examines how reputational concerns drove the adoption of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) in Kazakhstan. The article argues that Kazakhstan's decision to join EITI was largely driven by the government’s intention to use EITI as a rational governance tool to manipulate its political agenda to protect the regime’s legitimacy. However, norm adherence does not reflect effective compliance. The findings of EITI in Kazakhstan show that the adoption of EITI standardized requirements followed a specific internal logic that disconnects from the initiative’s initial purpose. The case of Kazakhstan further illustrates the limitations of external remedies to the ‘resource curse’ and emphasises the significance of vertical accountability in political regimes. The article urges scholars and policy advisers to further investigate how global governance arrangements are implemented at domestic levels, particularly in autocratic regimes.

KEYWORDS:

• EITI
• reputational concerns
• Kazakhstan
• transparency
• corruption
• global governance standards

Acknowledgements

The author would like to thank Irene Fernández-Molina at the University of Exeter and the anonymous reviewers for their valuable and constructive comments on earlier versions of the article.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1 Law on Subsoil and Subsoil Use (2010), О недрах и недропользовании Закон Республики Казахстан от 24 июня 2010 года № 291-IV, https://online.zakon.kz/Document/?doc_id=30770874#pos=0;0, accessed 29 October 2016.

2 Author’s interviews with employees of KazTransOil, 15 June 2015, and with members of the EITI coalition, KazEnergy Association, 5 June 2015, Astana.

3 Author’s interviews with employees of KazTransOil, 15 June 2015, Astana, with an employee of BG Group Kazakhstan, 4 June 2015, Astana, and with a managing partner of Parlink Consulting / Oil and Gas, 29 April 2015, Paris.

4 Author’s informal interview with an employee of BG Group Kazakhstan, 4 June 2015, Astana.

5 Author’s Skype interviews with a member of the EITI coalition of the civil society, 15 June 2015, Astana.

6 Author’s interviews with a member of the EITI coalition, KazEnergy Association, 5 June 2015, Astana, Skype interview with a member of the EITI coalition of the civil society, 15 June 2015, Astana, and interviews with a member of the EITI coalition, World Bank, 29 June 2015, Astana.

7 Author’s interview with Fond Eber member, 2 June 2015, Almaty.

8 Author’s interview with a member of Soros Foundation, 2 June 2015, Almaty.

9 Author’s interview with an employee of BG Group Kazakhstan, 4 June 2015, Astana, and with a managing partner of Parlink Consulting / Oil and Gas, 29 April 2015, Paris.

10 Author’s Skype interviews with a member of the EITI coalition of the civil society, 15 June 2015, Astana.

11 Ibid.

12 Author’s interviews with a member of the EITI coalition of the North Caspian operating company, 5 June 2015, Astana.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Marie Curie Initial Training Network under the 7th European Community Framework Programme [Grant Number FP7-PEOPLE-2012-ITN-316825].