Abstract

Anuradha M. Chenoy raises questions about the nature of democracy, development and discourse in Central Asia. The premise for the transition in the former Soviet Republics has been free market, democracy and the belief that the two will be mutually re-enforcing. Experience has shown that the linkage between capitalism and democracy is not that strong and it is capitalism and not democratic structures that have grown in accordance to western considerations in Central Asia. The method of capitalist growth has led to conditions of social distress for the majority of people and has enhanced autarchic tendencies in some of these states.