ABSTRACT
In the 1990s, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, international aid organisations played an important role in the promotion of economic liberalisation in Central Asian countries. National governments were suggested to run decentralisation reforms for creating better conditions for the market economy. Decentralisation was expected to improve the efficiency of public service delivery by the empowerment of local governments who were assumed to be better players to address local needs than the national government. However, despite the expected positive effects of decentralisation, empirical studies evaluating the impact of decentralisation on economic development still reveal conflicting findings. Country level generalisation used in most comparative empirical studies might underestimate the different roles of cities and regions. Therefore, the author argues that there is a need to introduce clarity about the impact of decentralisation in Kazakhstan that aims to urbanise and empower cities to become drivers of national economic development. The author pays attention to the importance of studying the role of local governments by focusing on the locally grounded practical activities such as planning and management of urban development. The chapter concludes with the introduction of the key findings of the following chapters.
