The Impact of Neoliberalism on Systemic Transformations of Post-Soviet Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan

Abstract

This dissertation examines the impact of the neoliberal ideology on systemic transformations of post-Soviet Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan. Rising as independent states out of the rubble of the Soviet Union in 1991, the ex-Soviet states of Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan immediately engaged in a long-term process of reforms aimed at national revival and economic resuscitation. Based on a comprehensive understanding of neoliberalism that addresses its manifestations at both ideational and practical levels, I conduct my investigation through a critical discourse analysis against the background of the global dominance of neoliberalism. This dissertation combines a broad macro-level examination of the political, economic, and cultural domains of post-Soviet transformative processes in these two countries with an extensive micro-level critical discourse analysis of the writings and public speeches of the presidents of both countries for manifestations of the influence of neoliberalism. The dissertation demonstrates that both countries’ post-Soviet transformations are not isolated events, and that they are strongly influenced and shaped by neoliberal ideas. The study highlights that the establishment of neoliberal capitalist orders in Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan in their post-Soviet period has been historically contingent and contextually specific. Moreover, the dissertation suggests that we might best understand post- Soviet capitalist transitions of both countries as the processes that are not a result of responding to democratic demands and aspirations as such; rather, they are the processes that involve the exercise of power on behalf of the state with the intention of preserving and perpetuating the interests of the capitalist political-economic systems established in both post-Soviet countries.