Introduction

Many predicted that the collapse of the Soviet Union would be followed by the democratization of the successor states.1 This notion has turned out to be at best premature, at worst misguided. Nowhere is this more so than in Central Asia, where the first decade of independence has been marked by strong authoritarian presidentialism. These contributions examine how the presidents of the Central Asian republics came into office and how they have managed to stay in office in the face of enormous transitional challenges. This book is thus an exploration of comparative presidentialism in the post-Soviet Central Asian states of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.