Abstract:

The paper on the Evolution of Civil Society-State Relations in Kazakhstan since the Independence until and beyond Kantar 2022 is a part of a wider research on how a particular configuration in the relations between civil society and the state may serve as a factor to stenotherm (or, otherwise, undermine) political stability of a nation.

A comprehensive literature review enabled the author to come up with an analytical framework of three types of such relations each demonstrating a particular number of criteria. This framework was then applied while processing the results of the event and content analysis of both strategic documents and official statements together with the political and societal developments to identify whether they match the criteria. The author distinguishes between three periods, namely 1989-1995, 1995-2019, 2019-present. The findings show a distinct configuration in the relations between Kazakhstan’s civil society and the state during each period that constitutes a combination of at least two of the three abovementioned types. The author then proposes a classification of civil-society actors in terms of stabilizing/destabilizing impact on the political sphere in Kazakhstan. Finally, the case study of the tragic event in Kazakhstan of January 2022 is used to test the validity of such classification.