Promising Changes? The Official Discourse on Social Modernization in Independent Kazakhstan

Abstract

Twenty four years of Kazakhstan’s independence, from 1991 to 2015, have brought reforms and changes into different spheres. Some of them are studied extensively: economic development and reforms, the nation building process, and formulation and objectives of foreign policy. However, the process of formulation and development of social policy remains understudied. This thesis utilizes a discourse analysis to scrutinize official statements, speeches and documents (for instance, official speeches of the President, and annual addresses) covering issues of social policy and social modernization since 1991. It attempts to answer how the discourse has been formed and developed during the 24 year period, what the main priorities and approaches to it are, and how the President uses the concepts of “Western” and “Eastern” models of modernization in the discourse on Kazakhstani social policy. Moreover, several in-depth interviews with experts help in the process of discourse analysis and context establishment. The thesis’ results show that the official discourse on social policy is predominantly positive, and development-oriented, it interconnects social modernization with economic development. Moreover, there are some tendencies, like social responsibility shift from state to individuals or business, or proposition of wider autonomy of an individual to be self-reliant. State officials present state’s role in the social policy as of a creator of conditions to realize her or himself, especially through the opening of a business, in a contradiction to a donor-state. In these regards, the idea of the Society of Universal labour and labour-oriented people is discussed extensively in the official documents. The last finding shows that there is an attempt to create a model of modernized society, through the emphasis on desirable characteristics for Kazakhstani people, like self-sufficiency, self-reliance, competitiveness, patriotism.