German Political Foundations in Central Asia: Promoting Democracy Through Civil Society

Abstract

The paper offers a critical analysis on the role of German political foundations as actors in democracy assistance and is aimed at detecting similarities and divergences in their operation with the civil society of the region. To this end, the article investigates the concrete programs implemented by two major German foundations – the Friedrich Ebert Foundation (FES) and the Konrad Adenauer Foundation (KAS) - in Central Asia, with emphasis on the specific case study of Kyrgyzstan.