All Parties are Equal, But Some are More Equal Than Others: Presidential Party Politics in Kyrgyzstan, 2010-2015

Abstract

As is common in many post-Soviet countries, Kyrgyzstan has had a series of presidential parties with Almazbek Atambaev’s Social Democratic Party of Kyrgyzstan (SDPK) being the most recent. This thesis studies the pre-history of the party itself and SDPK’s attempts to create more lasting party structures as well as the election campaigns of SDPK and Almazbek Atambaev in 2010, 2011, and 2015. Interviews with SDPK members and independent experts were utilized together with a content analysis of SDPK campaign literature in order to study the shifting tactics of SDPK as it has fully transitioned from a leading opposition party to the party of power after the 2010 revolution. The data gathered in the course of this research indicates that, regardless of various efforts to turn SDPK into a political institution in its own right, the party has become less reliant on regional identities, more deeply intertwined with the state apparatus, and even more dependent on the personal brand of Almazbek Atambaev.