Publication Date
1-1-1998
Document Type
Article
Organizational Units
Sturm College of Law
Keywords
Corporate governance, Capitalism, Kazakhstan
Abstract
A critical issue in the area of corporate governance and law concerns the differences in legal regimes that arise as a result of culture. Kazakhstan in the 1990s achieved independence from the former Soviet Union and was forced in quick order to put in place a series of laws that allowed a capitalist economy to function. Yet these laws were adopted in a state that had no experience with most aspects of private property. The Kazakh people were nomadic, moving from place to place, with little experience with real property. Personal property was largely limited to what they could carry. Stalin ended their nomadic behavior at tragic cost in the 1930s, forcing the Kazakh's to become more stationary. But the Soviet system likewise put little emphasis on an economic system based upon private property. Thus, at the time of independence in 1991, the Kazakhs had little experience with a capitalist based economic system.
The article examines the process of privatization that took place in Kazakhstan during the 1990s and the impact on the Kazakh people. The article emphasizes the lack of consideration of Kazakh history and culture in implementing the privatization process.
Publication Statement
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Originally published as Brown, Culture, Chaos and Capitalism: Privatization in Kazakhstan, 19 Pa.J.Int'l Economic Law 909 (Winter 1998).
Recommended Citation
Brown, Culture, Chaos and Capitalism: Privatization in Kazakhstan, 19 Pa.J.Int'l Economic Law 909 (Winter 1998).