CLANS IN THE CURRENT POLITICAL PROCESS OF THE POST-SOVIET COUNTRIES OF CENTRAL ASIA

Abstract

Aim. The author’s perspective of the study of the clan organization of Central Asia post-Soviet countries is focused on the identification of traditional institutions, their actualization in the modern political process and their socio-political evolution variants.Methodology. The authors offer an expanded understanding of the essence of a clan organization, in which consolidating loyalty is derected both horizontally within consanguineous communities, and vertically, reproducing the hierarchy of ties from the elite top to ordinary members of associations. Methods of content analysis, secondary analysis of sociological data, event analysis were usedResults. The main factors that actualize the clan organization in the socio-political process in Asian post-Soviet countries are the growth of social movement, self-awareness and public disappointment in an attempt to reproduce the Western model of social development.Research implications. The study confirms preservation of the relevance of the clan phenomenon in the socio-political process of the republics of post-Soviet Central Asia. The authors come to the conclusion that the contradictions with the elite, generated by the traditional vector of the evolution of clans, inevitably initiate the “regionalization” of clans, their consolidation around the agenda, which is focused on local problems. Such a “reversal” of clan communities can have destructive consequences, including potential trend to secession.

Keywords

• post-Soviet space
• Central Asia
• clans
• socio-political process
• regionalization
• competition of elites