The objective of this thesis is to analyze the authoritarian Karimov regime in post-Soviet Uzbekistan on a comprehensive basis and shed light on the domestic and international factors that has shaped this regime. The thesis consists of three main parts. The first part of the study defines the concepts of democracy and authoritarianism and provides the criteria to determine if a regime is democratic or authoritarian. The second part applies the theoretical framework developed in the first part to Uzbekistan. The third part deals with the factors that helped Karimov to strengthen his authoritarian rule in the country. The main argument of this study is that the incumbent leadership in Uzbekistan has failed to take steps to establish democracy in the country in post-Soviet period. The changes that were introduced proved to be only decorative, they lacked substance. The president of the country, Islam Karimov, has aimed at consolidating his own authority rather than establishing democracy and that his attempts to realize this aim resulted in the strengthening of executive branch in Uzbekistan at the expense of legislative and judiciary, silencing of the opposition forces, curtailment of the civil and political rights of the citizens, restriction of autonomy of civil society organizations and media.
Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:METU/oai:etd.lib.metu.edu.tr:http://etd.lib.metu.edu.tr/upload/12604690/index.pdf |
Date | 01 February 2004 |
Creators | Aydin, Gulsen |
Contributors | Bolukbasioglu, Suha |
Publisher | METU |
Source Sets | Middle East Technical Univ. |
Language | English |
Detected Language | English |
Type | M.S. Thesis |
Format | text/pdf |
Rights | To liberate the content for public access |
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