ABSTRACT
The chapter identifies the cities and regions on which the case studies are based. The national government of Kazakhstan selected cities (Almaty, Nur-Sultan, Shymkent, and Aktobe) and regions (Almaty, Akmola, Turkestan, and Aktobe regions) to form urban agglomerations. Almaty, Nur-Sultan, and Shymkent City governments belong to the first tier of the subnational government of Kazakhstan that makes them equal to other regional governments. The chapter provides background information about the local government and public administration system of Kazakhstan. The author introduces the roles of Maslikhat, the elected part of local government representatives, and Akimat, the local government’s administration. The chapter explains the transformation of the elected part of the local government from Soviets to Maslikhats. The key step towards administrative decentralisation was the delegation of urban planning to city governments. However, the national government preserved the Soviet practice of the top-down control of the planning process by the establishment of unified development norms and regulating the process of plan production and approval. Under the current fiscal constraints, local governments remain in competition for obtaining nationally distributed resources instead of aiming to reflect local development needs. There is a growing gap in economic development of cities and regions forming urban agglomerations.
