ABSTRACT

This article considers the performance of bureaucracies in two authoritarian states located in Central Asia, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. The former has been a consolidated authoritarian regime since its independence from the Soviet Union in 1991. The latter has oscillated between a form of parliamentary democracy and authoritarianism. We examine how the countries’ bureaucracies perform under different systems of governance and find that Kazakhstan is more effective given its relatively stable political context, higher level of professionalism, and greater policy capacity amongst its officials, notwithstanding its consistent authoritarian leadership. When politicians interfere in the work of officials, it results in lower impartiality and constitutional uncertainty. This finding reaffirms previous research (using Quality of Government survey data) which calls for the separation of political and bureaucratic roles as a way of improving government effectiveness and reducing corruption.

摘要

本文考察了位于中亚、哈萨克斯坦和吉尔吉斯斯坦的两个威权国家的官僚机构的表现。前者自 1991 年从苏联独立以来一直是一个巩固的威权政权。后者在议会民主和威权主义之间摇摆不定。我们研究了这些国家的官僚机构在不同治理体系下的表现，发现尽管哈萨克斯坦一贯的威权领导，但鉴于其相对稳定的政治环境、更高的专业水平和更高的官员政策能力，哈萨克斯坦的效率更高。当政客干涉官员的工作时，会导致公正性降低和宪法的不确定性。