The Incomplete State: Re-conceptualizing State and Society Relations in Central Asia

Abstract

Conventional literature on state-building has adopted a largely linear approach, depicting state and society relations in terms of binaries, such as weak versus strong states, authoritarian versus democratic, formal versus informal dimensions of statehood. This chapter argues that Central Asian states challenge this view by exposing the lack of these binaries. The argument unpacks through the concept of the ‘incomplete state’, which is offered here as a device for grasping the spaces of interstitial emergence in state and society relations. The Fergana Valley, trisected by Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan, is examined here as a case study for capturing the paradox of simultaneous territorial isolation and cross-border interdependence of social relations in diverse regions with multi-layered history.