Browsing by Author "Ouahmane, Hanna"

This study focuses on an analysis of two challenges facing the Central Asian region: the establishment and advancement of the Rule of Law and the fight against corruption. Despite being a historically important geostrategic region at the crossroads of the European and Asian continents, Central Asia does not always receive the attention it deserves, and research materials specifically concerning the region’s issue of Rule of Law development and its relationship with corruption are few. This study aims to analyse and assess foreign evaluations and promotions of Rule of Law and anticorruption measures targeting Central Asian countries. The specific legacy of Soviet times and countries made of subnational identities and kinship networks suggests another type of modernity that need to be composed with. This study finds that the neoliberal model presuming that a thick rule of law combined with liberalised markets will result in economic development has been discredited by high growth countries having free-market economies and liberalised capitalism but maintaining high level of corruption, institutionalised autocracy and state capture. This study shows that global governance instruments have still not fully come to grasp with this reality. Many still combine economic objectives with rule of law advancement through neoliberal ideals. Yet, the promotion of free trade and deregulated markets can encourage rent-seeking activities, which in turn can foster corruption weakening the rule of law in developed countries and hindering its development in transition nations.