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.
