Local governance, legitimacy, and social extraction: survey evidence from Uzbekistan

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Jennifer Murtazashvili (University of Pittsburgh)

Throughout much of the developing world, local government officials often use tools of social

extraction to compel citizens to provide public goods, services, and other collective goods (Lust

and Rakner 2018). In some cases, such efforts are voluntary and deeply embedded in local social

norms that encourage such cooperation. In other cases, such extraction is coerced. How do

efforts to engage in social extraction affect individual attitudes towards local government

authorities and the state in general? How do such efforts affect the quality of public goods

provided? This paper explores these questions in the context of rapidly reforming Uzbekistan

where quasi-customary local government officials routinely call upon citizens for collective

labor for the provision of some public goods. The process of social extraction is based on local

social norms that encourage voluntary provision (referred to locally as hashar). This paper will

seek to answer these questions by examining a unique, nested public opinion survey in

post-Karimov Uzbekistan. The survey includes a sample of quasi-customary officials (mahalla

leaders) along with a representative sample of individuals in their communities.

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