Favouring Leaders over Laggards: Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan

Abstract

This chapter maps the substance of EU democracy promotion in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan and identifies the factors that shape this substance. In applying the framework and hypotheses presented in the opening chapter of this volume, the empirical analysis focuses on the period 2007–2013.¹ We consider both the EU’s discourse and its actual policy implementation. The chapter consists of two parts. The first part sketches the democratic substance promoted by the EU. It finds that the EU does more to promote ‘broad’ liberal democracy in Kyrgyzstan than in Kazakhstan. In the second part, possible factors are examined that shape the content of the EU’s democracy promotion in order to understand the variance between the two target countries. We conclude with a summary of the main findings based upon review of EU documents, interviews and assessments of the extent of democratic reform in both countries.