Public Administration Country Study: Kazakhstan—Post-Soviet Legacy, Modernisation, and Hybridity

Knox C. Orazgaliyev S.
November/December 2025 John Wiley and Sons Inc

Public Administration Review
2025 #85 Issue 6 1888 - 1900 pp.

Kazakhstan is a post-Soviet upper middle-income country which claims to be a leader in regional governance in Central Asia. A key component of its development strategy since independence in 1991 has been public administration reform. This paper examines the post-Soviet public administration legacy, its features, and how Kazakhstan has attempted to modernize. The country study considers the transition process from the Soviet period, factors which shaped the change, and the extent to which Kazakhstan is now a “democratic unitary state.” Kazakhstan has made progress beyond a post-Soviet model of public administration. However, it cannot be described as a “democratic unitary state” but rather practices hybrid governance reflecting the demise of the authoritarian bargain. The Kazakhstan country study illustrates how public administration reforms can gain traction in non-democratic settings and challenges the liberal democratic bias in much public administration theory.

hybrid governance , Kazakhstan , soviet model of public administration

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Graduate School of Public Policy, Nazarbayev University, Astana, Kazakhstan
Ulster University, Belfast, United Kingdom
Hiroshima University, Network for Education and Research on Peace and Sustainability (NERPS), Hiroshima, Japan

Graduate School of Public Policy
Ulster University
Hiroshima University

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