Compartmentalized Ideology: Presidential Addresses and Legitimation in Kazakhstan

Abstract

The chapter explores how non-democratic regimes sustain legitimacy and power through the use of ideological tools such as compartmentalized ideology. Compartmentalized ideology is defined as a set of rather conflicting discourses about nation-building guided by the socio-linguistic differences and interests of the domestic audiences. This ideology creates a system of discourses and experiences, ways of thinking and imagining oneself only within the framework provided by the non-democratic regime itself without allowing further alternatives. It becomes the dominant discursive system with which regime legitimates itself. The main mechanism of compartmentalized ideology is the shift of various different discourses that are all connected by the authority and power of the president N. A. Nazarbayev and that are mainly presented in his official public speeches.