Conceptualising State Capacity: Comparing Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan

Sally N. Cummings and Ole Nørgaard

Political Studies, 2004, vol. 52, issue 4, 685-708

Abstract: Strengthening the state is central to the post‐communist reform agenda. Here, state capacity combines organisational, material and social resources and is conceptualised along four dimensions: ideational, political, technical and implementational. This conceptualisation is applied to a comparative, survey‐based analysis in 2002 of 125 medium‐ranking officials in two post‐ communist Central Asian countries, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. The findings reveal that although Kazakhstan's controlled economic reform programme and natural resources have placed it in a stronger position to develop its state capacity, important ideational, political and implementational problems pose long‐term obstacles for reform. In turn, Kyrgyzstan's early liberalisation in the absence of economic and social resources may be serving to undermine its state capacity.

Date: 2004
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