Authors

Matteo Bonini¹;  ¹ University of Oxford, UK

Discussion

This thesis analyses the nature of discursive forms of constitutionalism in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. Constitutionalism is the process which governments are held accountable to a body of fundamental law, and in liberal democracies, constitutional forms of accountability are upheld through effective discursive, institutional, and electoral mechanisms. Whilst there is growing literature on constitutionalism in non-liberal regimes, it remains focussed on institutional and electoral mechanisms, with little on that discursive.

This thesis seeks to provide insight into constitutional engagement under non-liberal regimes, in particular how groups understand the document's positionality (how they understand the constitution), and its function (what the document does). The central claim of this thesis is that people in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan view the constitution as a document which aspires the national developmental trajectory. However, differing political legacies have resulted in different views of the constitution’s function. Textual continuity in Kazakhstan means that people there have a closer relationship to the constitution’s text, and thus understand its function based on how it governs. Meanwhile in Kyrgyzstan, the competitive political landscape has resulted in people there having a smaller attachment to the constitutional text, instead viewing the constitution broadly as a set of values – in essence what it can do.