Kazakhstan INC.: A New Brand of Corporatism

Abstract

This thesis seeks to understand the role of corporatism in the Kazakhstani political arrangement. The main question asked will be: “Is Kazakhstan a corporate state?” To understand it, the paper looks into the relationships between business interest groups (financial-industrial groups) and the state. The study attempts to bring some novelty both into the literature of corporatism and into the Kazakhstan’s state - interest groups relationships studies. Being one of the well-developed theoretical constructions in other regions, and especially, in other post-communist countries, corporatism in Kazakhstan has never been dedicated a detailed study. The thesis establishes that Kazakhstani system of relationships between state and business interest groups indicate some typical corporatist traits. As the research topic does not address issues of quantitative nature, qualitative research and secondary data analysis best serves the purposes of the paper.