Rentier capitalism and economic imaginaries in Central Asia

Abstract

This article examines how the US, Russia and China have promoted and expanded rent extraction in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. While the global powers have articulated competing discourses and strategies on economic development in the region, they have largely achieved similar outcomes of rentierism. In the region, the ‘free market’ agenda of the Washington Consensus has co-existed with China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and Russia-led Eurasian Economic Union (EaEU), and domestic elites in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan have managed them to achieve substantial rent for themselves and foreign investors. The article will investigate how the economic imaginaries of the US, Russia and China have been responsible for instituting and normalizing various forms of rent, and will evaluate the implications of rentierism. This study seeks to contribute to the literature on rentierism by understanding how the three global powers have promoted rent as a legitimate yet unjust form of enrichment.