Bakhytzhan Kurmanov
Biographic Data
| ID | 1452792 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Bakhytzhan Kurmanov |
| GIVEN NAMES | Bakhytzhan |
| FAMILY NAME | Kurmanov |
| SIGNATURE | KURMANOV B |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Central Asia |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-0276-2837 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 15 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 47 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 15 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2022 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 4 |
Staying Afloat: Coping Strategies of NGOs in Central Asia
This article examines how non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in Central Asia adapt to ‘shrinking civic space’ through a diverse set of coping strategies. Drawing on 48 interviews and extensive fieldwork in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan (2022–2024), it demonstrates how NGOs respond to regulatory repression by employing both inward- (professionalisation, diversification, simulation) and outward-looking (boomerang tactics, GONGO-isation)…
Do hybrid democratic innovations work in autocracies? Investigating the Cases of Participatory Budgeting in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan
Hybrid democratic innovations, typically introduced in democratic contexts to enhance citizen engagement and address democratic “malaise,” combine deliberative “talking” among smaller groups with broader “voting” by the public. In recent years, authoritarian regimes have also begun adopting such democratic innovations, including participatory budgeting (PB). This paper investigates whether such mechanisms serve merely as tools to reinforce author…
Accountability, Civil Society, and Economic Growth: Exploring the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative's Adoption in Central Asia and Beyond
This study examines the impact of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI), particularly its multi‐stakeholder group (MSG) mechanism, on economic growth in 62 resource‐rich developing countries over 30 years, with a special focus on Central Asia. Employing a mixed‐methods approach, the research explores two complementary pathways through which EITI may influence economic outcomes: the institutional pathway, emphasizing accountabil…
From Margins to Mainstream: National-Patriots and Kazakhisation in the Making of Post-Nazarbayev Kazakhstan
The 2022 Qandy Qantar (‘Bloody January’) protests in Kazakhstan and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine the following month have galvanized significant shifts in Kazakhstan’s nation-building policies under President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev. Drawing on media and social-media analysis, survey data, and interviews with national-patriotic intellectuals and officials, this article shows how these groups have been co-opted into Tokayev’s political institutions,…
Crossing the red lines? Academic ‘freedom’ in Central Asia
Finding Space for Activism
This article examines the reactions of young people and, more specifically, youth activists in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Specifically, we demonstrate how online involvement bleeds into the offline political activity of young people related to the war in complex ways. While Central Asians rely on online activity to discover and interact with news about the war, the war has catalyzed a variety of political activitie…
Making the Golden Horde “Great Again”: Historians as Memory Actors and Reinterpretation of the Historical Narratives in Independent Kazakhstan
This article investigates the transformation of the official historical narrative of the Golden Horde in Kazakhstan, tracing a significant shift from Nazarbayev to Tokayev’s presidencies. The narrative of the Golden Horde became a strategic component of the second president, Tokayev, who announced the commemoration of 750 years of the Horde foundation in Kazakhstan and proclaimed that it laid the foundations for Kazakh statehood. The research exp…
Variegated digital state repression in Central Asia
Existing research on digital activism in autocratic regimes tends to treat Central Asia as a homogenous entity with similar approaches to how new digital technologies are used for the purposes of state repression. Drawing on Feldstein's taxonomy of digital repression and new empirical evidence, this essay shows that digital state repression varies across the region. The presented findings add to current scholarship in three ways. First, we consid…
New Political Leadership, Plus Ça Change ? State-Civil Society Relations in Central Asia
Elite schools and educational inequality: Evidence from a private university in Kazakhstan
Listening State?’: Exploring citizens’ perceptions of Open Government in Tokayev’s Kazakhstan
The Open Government reform has been actively adopted across various non-democratic regimes, including post-Soviet Central Asia. The reform is supposed to bolster responsiveness and transparency through the active use of information communication technologies, and numerous authoritarian countries have recently adopted and deepened the Open Government reform. In this work, we study whether Open Government reform contributes to responsiveness in aut…
Between ‘info-killers’ and ‘spies’: Three strategies for interviewing government officials across Central Asia
Researchers conducting politically sensitive studies in the authoritarian region of Central Asia face significant obstacles beyond government control over knowledge production. These challenges include suspicion of espionage, journalism or being an ‘info-killer’. While some scholarly accounts address the difficulties of accessing government officials in Central Asia, reflections by local scholars on effective interviewing strategies remain scarce…
Digital activism and authoritarian legitimation in post-Soviet Central Asia
Scholarly research on the role of digital activism in authoritarian settings has largely centered around debates on "liberation technology" versus "networked authoritarianism". In this article we aim to extend existing research by linking authoritarian legitimation theories with emerging scholarship on digital activism. We examine Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, two autocracies in post-Soviet Central Asia, and show how non-democratic regimes use digit…
Authoritarian succession, rules, and conflicts: Tokayev’s gambit and Kazakhstan’s bloody January of 2022 ( Qandy Qantar)
Open government and citizen empowerment in authoritarian states
The introduction of open government has been used in many countries to improve the transparency, accountability of the state, and promote participation by citizens in collaborative governance. Its potential for public services improvement, citizen empowerment, and a positive impact on reducing corruption have attracted scholarly attention. Set alongside this, open government initiatives have facilitated greater access to information which can be …
Open government and citizen empowerment in authoritarian states
The introduction of open government has been used in many countries to improve the transparency, accountability of the state, and promote participation by citizens in collaborative governance. Its potential for public services improvement, citizen empowerment, and a positive impact on reducing corruption have attracted scholarly attention. Set alongside this, open government initiatives have facilitated greater access to information which can be …
Authoritarian succession, rules, and conflicts: Tokayev’s gambit and Kazakhstan’s bloody January of 2022 ( Qandy Qantar)
Listening State?’: Exploring citizens’ perceptions of Open Government in Tokayev’s Kazakhstan
The Open Government reform has been actively adopted across various non-democratic regimes, including post-Soviet Central Asia. The reform is supposed to bolster responsiveness and transparency through the active use of information communication technologies, and numerous authoritarian countries have recently adopted and deepened the Open Government reform. In this work, we study whether Open Government reform contributes to responsiveness in aut…
Between ‘info-killers’ and ‘spies’: Three strategies for interviewing government officials across Central Asia
Researchers conducting politically sensitive studies in the authoritarian region of Central Asia face significant obstacles beyond government control over knowledge production. These challenges include suspicion of espionage, journalism or being an ‘info-killer’. While some scholarly accounts address the difficulties of accessing government officials in Central Asia, reflections by local scholars on effective interviewing strategies remain scarce…
Digital activism and authoritarian legitimation in post-Soviet Central Asia
Scholarly research on the role of digital activism in authoritarian settings has largely centered around debates on "liberation technology" versus "networked authoritarianism". In this article we aim to extend existing research by linking authoritarian legitimation theories with emerging scholarship on digital activism. We examine Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, two autocracies in post-Soviet Central Asia, and show how non-democratic regimes use digit…
Variegated digital state repression in Central Asia
Existing research on digital activism in autocratic regimes tends to treat Central Asia as a homogenous entity with similar approaches to how new digital technologies are used for the purposes of state repression. Drawing on Feldstein's taxonomy of digital repression and new empirical evidence, this essay shows that digital state repression varies across the region. The presented findings add to current scholarship in three ways. First, we consid…
New Political Leadership, Plus Ça Change ? State-Civil Society Relations in Central Asia
Open government and citizen empowerment in authoritarian states
The introduction of open government has been used in many countries to improve the transparency, accountability of the state, and promote participation by citizens in collaborative governance. Its potential for public services improvement, citizen empowerment, and a positive impact on reducing corruption have attracted scholarly attention. Set alongside this, open government initiatives have facilitated greater access to information which can be …
Elite schools and educational inequality: Evidence from a private university in Kazakhstan
Listening State?’: Exploring citizens’ perceptions of Open Government in Tokayev’s Kazakhstan
The Open Government reform has been actively adopted across various non-democratic regimes, including post-Soviet Central Asia. The reform is supposed to bolster responsiveness and transparency through the active use of information communication technologies, and numerous authoritarian countries have recently adopted and deepened the Open Government reform. In this work, we study whether Open Government reform contributes to responsiveness in aut…
Between ‘info-killers’ and ‘spies’: Three strategies for interviewing government officials across Central Asia
Researchers conducting politically sensitive studies in the authoritarian region of Central Asia face significant obstacles beyond government control over knowledge production. These challenges include suspicion of espionage, journalism or being an ‘info-killer’. While some scholarly accounts address the difficulties of accessing government officials in Central Asia, reflections by local scholars on effective interviewing strategies remain scarce…
Digital activism and authoritarian legitimation in post-Soviet Central Asia
Scholarly research on the role of digital activism in authoritarian settings has largely centered around debates on "liberation technology" versus "networked authoritarianism". In this article we aim to extend existing research by linking authoritarian legitimation theories with emerging scholarship on digital activism. We examine Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, two autocracies in post-Soviet Central Asia, and show how non-democratic regimes use digit…
Authoritarian succession, rules, and conflicts: Tokayev’s gambit and Kazakhstan’s bloody January of 2022 ( Qandy Qantar)
Crossing the red lines? Academic ‘freedom’ in Central Asia
Finding Space for Activism
This article examines the reactions of young people and, more specifically, youth activists in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Specifically, we demonstrate how online involvement bleeds into the offline political activity of young people related to the war in complex ways. While Central Asians rely on online activity to discover and interact with news about the war, the war has catalyzed a variety of political activitie…
Making the Golden Horde “Great Again”: Historians as Memory Actors and Reinterpretation of the Historical Narratives in Independent Kazakhstan
This article investigates the transformation of the official historical narrative of the Golden Horde in Kazakhstan, tracing a significant shift from Nazarbayev to Tokayev’s presidencies. The narrative of the Golden Horde became a strategic component of the second president, Tokayev, who announced the commemoration of 750 years of the Horde foundation in Kazakhstan and proclaimed that it laid the foundations for Kazakh statehood. The research exp…
Variegated digital state repression in Central Asia
Existing research on digital activism in autocratic regimes tends to treat Central Asia as a homogenous entity with similar approaches to how new digital technologies are used for the purposes of state repression. Drawing on Feldstein's taxonomy of digital repression and new empirical evidence, this essay shows that digital state repression varies across the region. The presented findings add to current scholarship in three ways. First, we consid…
New Political Leadership, Plus Ça Change ? State-Civil Society Relations in Central Asia
Staying Afloat: Coping Strategies of NGOs in Central Asia
This article examines how non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in Central Asia adapt to ‘shrinking civic space’ through a diverse set of coping strategies. Drawing on 48 interviews and extensive fieldwork in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan (2022–2024), it demonstrates how NGOs respond to regulatory repression by employing both inward- (professionalisation, diversification, simulation) and outward-looking (boomerang tactics, GONGO-isation)…
Do hybrid democratic innovations work in autocracies? Investigating the Cases of Participatory Budgeting in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan
Hybrid democratic innovations, typically introduced in democratic contexts to enhance citizen engagement and address democratic “malaise,” combine deliberative “talking” among smaller groups with broader “voting” by the public. In recent years, authoritarian regimes have also begun adopting such democratic innovations, including participatory budgeting (PB). This paper investigates whether such mechanisms serve merely as tools to reinforce author…
Accountability, Civil Society, and Economic Growth: Exploring the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative's Adoption in Central Asia and Beyond
This study examines the impact of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI), particularly its multi‐stakeholder group (MSG) mechanism, on economic growth in 62 resource‐rich developing countries over 30 years, with a special focus on Central Asia. Employing a mixed‐methods approach, the research explores two complementary pathways through which EITI may influence economic outcomes: the institutional pathway, emphasizing accountabil…
From Margins to Mainstream: National-Patriots and Kazakhisation in the Making of Post-Nazarbayev Kazakhstan
The 2022 Qandy Qantar (‘Bloody January’) protests in Kazakhstan and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine the following month have galvanized significant shifts in Kazakhstan’s nation-building policies under President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev. Drawing on media and social-media analysis, survey data, and interviews with national-patriotic intellectuals and officials, this article shows how these groups have been co-opted into Tokayev’s political institutions,…
Political science (8 works) · Politics (8 works) · Law (7 works) · Authoritarianism (6 works) · Central asia (6 works) · Law (6 works) · Democracy (5 works) · Economics (5 works) · Government (linguistics (5 works) · Ancient history (4 works)