Comparative Perspectives on Third Generation Reform: Realignment and Misalignment in Central Asian Reform Programs

Abstract

More than decade after initiating some of the most ambitious administrative reform programs ever attempted, the post-communist governments of the former Soviet Union have established widely different records of success in their efforts. While restructuring has taken place in all the post-communist countries, the original objectives and expectations have varied considerably. Several of the post-communist countries are now entering the third generation of structural realignment. Others, however, have produced conditions in which movement from the second to the third phase of reform has become highly problematic. This article analyzes comparatively the experience of reform in two post communist states, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, in terms of the sequencing, mechanisms, experience and results of reform efforts. The analysis focuses on government performance in structural reform. Based on the analysis, the authors propose strategic objectives for the international community’s efforts to facilitate structural correctives oriented toward third generation reform.