ABSTRACT
Kyrgyzstan was the boldest and earliest in Central Asia to liberalize the political field and move toward a multi-party system after gaining independence in 1991. Over the subsequent years, however, the multiplicity of political parties failed to solidify into an effective and stable multi-party system, functioning instead as an ever-shifting, volatile playing field with shallow roots in the society. The rather permissive and minimalist regulatory framework for parties is posited as a key basic condition leading to such a state, whereas the absence of public funding of parties coupled with poor party finance regulation led to the electoral and general political instrumentalization of parties in the hands of oligarchic interests devoid of meaningful linkage with party supporters and voters at large in most cases.
