State-Building in the Steppe: Challenges to Kazakhstan’s Modernizing Aspirations

The Republic of Kazakhstan seeks to undergo modernization over the course of the next several decades and transform into one of the world’s top 30 economies. To fulfil this aim, the Kazakhstani government has designed a programme known as the ‘100 Steps’. If faithfully implemented, this package of reforms will gradually revolutionize the nature of Kazakhstani state–society relations, by remaking Kazakhstan into a more economically dynamic and politically pluralistic country. However, a series of bureaucratic-legal, economic, and socio-political challenges will need to be overcome in order for this to happen, and success or failure will ultimately be determined by the actions of the ruling elites.