The challenges for the consolidation of democracy in post-Soviet Central Asia: the case of Uzbekistan under Islam Karimov administration

Abstract

This paper has as general objective to analyze the democratization process of post-Soviet Uzbekistan, seeking, within the scope of specific objectives, to understand the democratic trajectory during Islam Karimov’s administration (1991-2016). In this sense, the research argues that, contrary to what substantial part of the existing literature argues, the difficulties faced in the country’s democratization process may be in the understanding of the very concept of democracy, of a series of domestic and external factors, in addition to completely new aspects for the debate. In the development of the article, the first goal is to present the theoretical and conceptual aspects used to carry out the study, as well as a historical contextualization of the region and the recent history of Uzbekistan. Then, the democratic indicators of the Karimov government will be analyzed, identifying their particularities and the challenges that exist in the country’s democratic process.

Keywords

• central asia
• uzbekistan
• democratization
• islam karimov