KYRGYZSTAN TODAY Policy briefs on - Department of Geography

sector had grown strong and now had the potential to become an important player in
the political process, however, NGOs were not able to consolidate and address the political
and social backlash that took place after the March 2005 events. They were incapable
of influencing the outcome of important political processes, such as constitutional
reform and parliamentary elections in 2007, to ensure the respect of democratic
principles and the legislation; so today, the democratization strategy of the international
community where NGOs have been considered major and effective advocates for
demo cratic reforms has not been achieved in Kyrgyzstan. I will attempt to explain
some of the shortcomings and limitations of this strategy in the following sections.
Democracy and state building
The process of democratization in Kyrgyzstan should be regarded as a particularly
challenging task considering that its models of statehood and societal framework based
on the idea of citizenship were originally shaped in the Soviet period, designed to assert
the policy of the Soviet Union. The critical situation in which Kyrgyzstan finds itself
now is the result of the continual destruction of the infrastructural arrangements laid
down by the Soviet Union in the administrative, industrial, energy, financial and social
sectors. Since independence in 1991, no effective attempts have been made in Kyrgyzstan
to rebuild the conceptual and managerial framework of the state, and the government
has failed to fulfill administrative reforms in accordance with modern standards of
good governance. The country has a low level of education and healthcare and living
conditions are worsening.
In Kyrgyzstan, the public sphere is not a space based on the ideas of common good
and social justice, but a place where individuals strive for power, often for short-term
reasons of personal financial enrichment. As the state fails to provide even basic social
and economic guarantees to the population in face of high inflation and worsening living
conditions, the structural systematic connection between citizens and the state has been
almost lost. The factual connection between the state administration and citizens takes
place mostly in matters that involve paperwork (arranging a passport, pension, civil
status, property issues, etc.).
Nowadays, the authorities do not make any attempt to develop a relevant ideological
framework to maintain the civil spirit (grajdanstvennost’) among the population,
so civic relations between the state and citizens are also being destroyed. People have
lost their faith in the ability of the state to provide security and decent living conditions,
as the current state policy ignores the problems of its citizens. In such circumstances,
democratization is not likely to be achieved. Democracy is closely connected to the
concept of state that provides a framework for achieving democratic governance and
civic culture. For democracy to become institutionalized, there should be a state built
on the concepts of justice and common good that fulfills its functions of security and
guarantees vis-а-vis its citizens.
Given that democracy is an inherent part of the moral principles shared in the
community, democratic concepts can function only if the values and ideas they set up
have become a part of the system of local social values. Democracy is associated with
a developed political society of citizens that associate freely and interact and contest
with the state to ensure the common good and individual rights. The population of
Kyrgyzstan lacks experience in democratic relations. There are several reasons for this.
First, the people of Kyrgyzstan used to live under a different state system with entirely
different social relations. This experience was not based on self-initiative and public
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