Paper long abstract:

In the recent years the introduction of e-government and digitalization of public services has been actively promoted in the Post-Soviet region both by governments and international donors. Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic and Uzbekistan have made tremendous progress in establishing ICT infrastructure, creating e-government websites, pushing government officials to respond to citizens in internet and social media. The countries in Central Asia seek to promote not just e-government, but open government that is defined by the OECD as the governments being responsive to citizens.

Certainly, most authoritarian governments pursue e-government as anti-corruption or economic development measure. Some authoritarian countries aimed to maintain control over population and limit the freedoms of people when they introduced e-government reform . However, scholars noted that that "e-governance is intended to change the way that citizens relate to governments, how citizens relate to each other, and how the governments relate to citizens". Hence, the puzzle is how can authoritarian government introduce more e-government and digitalization while avoiding citizen engagement and responsiveness component.

How does open government impact citizen engagement in authoritarian settings in Central Asia? This is a major research question that this paper will address. I plan to focus at Kazakhstan as the most critical case since the country is ranked the highest in UN e-government index in Central Asia. To answer this research question, I will focus at two critical incidents of engagement between authorities and citizens. Through the analysis of secondary data, process tracing and qualitative methods (including interviews) I will be able to identify the impact of open government on citizen engagement.

This study will also discover the limits and opportunities of Open Government in fostering democratic engagement citizens in Central Asia. This paper will contribute to the Open Government theory and generate new critical lessons for citizen engagement and democratization issues in Central Asia and broader Post-Soviet Region.