Alcohol,Policy and Politics in Kazakhstan

Alcohol consumption in post-communist Kazakhstan remains at high levels and episodic heavy drinking, characteristic of the spirits-drinking regions of the former USSR, is still the national drinking style. Reported levels of alcohol-related harm are rising but assessment of trends in levels of consumption and harm is hindered by the disruption to data collection in the post-independence period and the continuing poor availability of public information. There is evidence however that changes in the republic's ethnic profile are connected with a downward trend in overall consumption rates, though changes in lifestyles may be leading to more drinking amongst women and young people. The numbers undergoing treatment for alcohol problems are greater than ever before. Alcohol problems are still perceived as entrenched and non-urgent, but in the present climate of greater stability and prosperity they are beginning to attract more attention from government. Underlying policy trends will depend on the overall direction of Kazakhstan's political and cultural development. This article assesses drinking patterns and related problems in Kazakhstan, and examines government responses and policies. The article is based on documentary research, visits to organisations and interviews.     

Privileged Exclusion in Post-Soviet Kazakhstan: Ethnic Return Migration,Citizenship, and the Politics of (Not) Belonging

This article explores issues of citizenship and belonging associated with post-Soviet Kazakhstan’s repatriation programme. Beginning in 1991, Kazakhstan financed the resettlement of over 944,000 diasporic Kazakhs from nearly a dozen countries, including Mongolia, and encouraged repatriates to become naturalised citizens. Using the concept of ‘privileged exclusion’, this article argues that repatriated Kazakhs from Mongolia belong due to their knowledge of Kazakh language and traditions yet, at the same time, do not belong due to their lack of linguistic fluency in Russian, the absence of a shared Soviet experience, and limited comfort with the ‘cosmopolitan’ lifestyle that characterises the new elite in this post-Soviet context.     

Migrations in Kazakhstan: past and present

This article traces the history of migration flows from Russia to Kazakhstan before 1917 to the present. The present problems in the republic stem from the complicated character of migration. Russian migration of Cossacks and peasants began after Russian annexation in 1731. Migration was intense during the Revolution of 1905-07 and the strongest during 1917-91. Records reveal 1.1 million migrants and 5 million total population in 1900. 6.2 million migrated during 1917-91. During 1917-91, migrants in the early years were victims of collectivization (est. 250,000), followed by WWI refugees and migrants from northern provinces fleeing civil war (100,000 persons). During the 1930s, industrial workers were recruited (1.3 million). "Unreliables" were deported during WWII (1.3 million). Forced evacuees from occupied territories settled during 1941-45 (1.45 million). Spontaneous flows occurred during the 1970s (1 million). There were secret military settlements (250,000), labor migrants (200,000), and war and ethnic refugees fleeing national conflicts (50,000) post-WWII. 42% of Kazakhs died from hunger and epidemics, and 33% fled abroad during the early decades of the century. In 1937, population amounted to 2.8 million. Today, about 100 nationalities live in Kazakhstan, although the largest groups are Kazakhs (43.2%) and Russians (36.4%). In 1993, 75.8% of the total work force were non-Kazakh workers. Kazakhs are 60% of rural population, but many are migrating to cities that are dominated by Russians. Growing unemployment fostered tensions with the Chechens and may lead to conflicts with Russians.     

The Determinants of Economic System Legitimacy in Kazakhstan

Despite robust, and much touted, growth, Kazakhstan's economic system enjoys only tepid support among large swathes of the population and is viewed by many as neither fair nor legitimate. Extreme juxtapositions of new wealth and new poverty against a historic background of economic and social egalitarianism combine to make this a potent and combustible issue. Women, ethnic Slavs, the poor, people in urban areas most afflicted by post-Soviet de-industrialisation, those who feel they have lost out in the transition to a market economy, and those who are pessimistic about their financial prospects are more likely to question the legitimacy of the current economic system. Because scepticism about the distributive system contributes to political and social strife, these findings provide grounds for concern about Kazakhstan's long-term stability.     

The Use and Abuse of Postcolonial Discourses in Post-independent Kazakhstan

The article explores the concept of political postcolonialism and how political groups appropriate and contest this discourse. Elites and contesting political groups utilise postcolonial rhetoric to legitimate their political goals by projecting that their country, in this case Kazakhstan, was colonised by the Tsarist Russia and then by the Soviet Union. For President Nursultan A. Nazarbayev’s nationalising regime the status of Kazakhstan as a colony represented a vital item in post-1991 nation-building projects. Political opposition and Kazakh national-patriots contested this official discourse, blaming the regime for scarce efforts towards ‘full decolonisation’. The absence of major intellectual discussion allowed these elites and political players to reappropriate these discourses in the political rather than critical intellectual domain.     

Terror Politics and Medicine: The Role of Leadership

The ongoing intensive wave of terror assaults against Israel is already approaching its fourth year. The endurance of the Israeli population to this hardship can be attributed, to a certain extent, to proficient leadership. Directing a tertiary university hospital, such as Hadassah, throughout this dire period has required distinctive leadership capabilities. Problems such as staff management during crisis, security, provision of information to the public and media, coping with the clinical routine, teaching and research activities and handling the economic burden, were all aspects of hospital administration that had to be taken care of. We believe that the core issue of medical management in time of terror attacks is establishing the right balance between the specific and peacetime routine. The measures taken to deal with these difficulties can serve as a model of contingency management in the field of medicine as well as other areas.‐     

The micro-politics of norm contestation between the OSCE and Kazakhstan: square pegs in round holes

Norm contestation by local actors has emerged in recent years as an explanation for the failure of norm diffusion. This article contributes to the literature on norm contestation by analysing how norms diffused by the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) pertaining to election observation and free and fair voting are re-constituted and contested by domestic actors in Kazakhstan. The study contributes to the idea of ‘constitutive localisation’ by emphasising a more fundamental level of disagreement beyond just congruence between the diffused norm and local beliefs; by demonstrating contestation can occur in the later stages in the norm diffusion cycle; by focusing on the micro-politics of contestation by local actors involved in the implementation of diffused norms; and by revealing how norm contestation is not necessarily a process of emancipatory politics, but a strategic act to serve authoritarian consolidation. Utilising a four-fold framework, the analysis illustrates how norms, while initially accepted by Kazakhstani authorities, are reconstituted through political discourse and/or practice, creating the moment of contestation. While this contestation is instrumentalised by political elites for their own advantage, it also remains an important element of agency within a normative order which they had little previous control over.     

Identities and the Indian state: An overview

The importance that IR theorists have traditionally given to sovereign statehood has decreased their ability to explain new issues of global heterogeneity and diversity. The need to explain the end of the cold war, the disintegration of the former Soviet Union and the revival of old identities as well as the eruption of ethnic conflict in various parts of the world has, therefore, led to the return of culture and identity in IR theory. The concept of nation-state in international relations is based on the assumption that humanity is divided into nations and each nation is entitled to a state of its own. Although a state can exist without a nation it does not have the same legitimacy as a nation-state. Thus post colonial states like India, which are often considered to have artificial boundaries and are made up of many ethnic groups, feel obliged to embark on nation-building and prove that they are a nation-state even though homogeneous nation-states are a dwindling minority. The rise of the BJP in India emphasises the importance of religious and cultural identities but still does not prove that India is a nation. There has always been a tension between national and subnational identities in India. Not everyone who lives within the territorial borders of India considers him/herself to be an Indian nationalist-for example, Kashmiris seeking independence. The central government has always been aware of this and has always given priority to the preservation of the unity and integrity of the country. Indeed the constitution of India, while giving recognition to the fact that India is a multi-ethnic state, does not given anyone the right to secede from the Union. However, it is difficult to say how far India has progressed in the past 50 years beyond mere political integration and towards the creation of a nation-state through the transfer of loyalties from regional or ethnic groups to the nation, whose legal expression is the Indian Union. In the long run this is the only thing that will preserve the Indian state as it exists today.     

Talking Cop: Discourses of Change and Policing Identities

This paper presents empirical and theoretical analysis of the enactment of New Public Management (NPM) within the UK police service. It draws on empirical material gathered in a two-year study that explores the ways in which individual policing professionals have responded to, and received, the NPM discourse. Theoretically informed by a discursive approach to organizational analysis, the paper focuses on the new subject positions promoted within NPM that serve to challenge traditional understandings of policing organization and identities. The paper examines the implications of this for policies that promote community orientated policing (COP) and increased inter-agency partnership. The paper argues that the promotion of a more progressive form of policing, based on community orientation and equality principles, may struggle to gain legitimacy within the current performance regime that legitimizes a competitive masculine subjectivity, with its emphasis on crime fighting.     

The Politics of Local Income Tax in Sweden: Reform and Continuity

Local authorities have played an important role in the Swedish model of the Welfare State. This state is characterised by high levels of welfare provision paid for through general taxation, the rates of which are very high and the application of uniform standards across the entire country based on the principles of equity and fairness. The main form of income for local authorities is a Local Income Tax which is paid by 85% of the population. In the 1980s and 1990s, Sweden went through an economic crisis which resulted in significant changes to the tax system, although the Local Income Tax was retained. Subsequent changes have followed a pendulum process, with deregulation of local government finances in the 1990s being followed by greater regulation in the following years. Today, Sweden is conducting a major debate about the role and functions of different levels of government in the light of social, economic and political changes in the international scene.