Elite Fragmentation and Pro-presidential Consolidation: Party Development, Type and Causality in Kazakhstan

This article examines the under-researched topic of party development, type and potential causality in post-Soviet Kazakhstan using Richard Gunther and Larry Diamond’s typology related to party organisation, ideology and behavioural norms. Unsurprisingly for a post-Soviet environment the analysis reveals that parties in Kazakhstan are elite-centred and personalistic. While party development in Kazakhstan has gone largely ignored in academic scholarship due to the authoritarian nature of the political system, this article reveals that research on political parties in Kazakhstan, and broader Central Asia, is worthy due to the crucial role they play in structuring high-level elite competition and providing elite stability for the executive. The article discusses these two important contributions parties have made to Kazakhstan’s post-Soviet transition by examining two central processes related to parties. The first is the process of elite fragmentation which saw several waves of former ruling elites leave left the president’s patronage and enter into opposition creating a number of political parties. The second is pro-presidential consolidation. This process was enacted by the president in an effort to consolidate all presidential sympathetic parties and supporters behind his rule to counter the instability instigated by elite fragmentation.