POLITICAL DETERMINANTS OF PENSION REFORMS IN KAZAKHSTAN: CASES OF 1998 AND 2013 PENSION REFORMS

Abstract

Kazakhstan is active in reforming its pension system compared to other Post-Soviet states. In the last three decades since it became independent, it had two major and three less significant pension reforms. This master thesis focuses on the political determinants of two major ones. The first reform occurred in 1998 and introduced private pension funds and departed from the Soviet solidarity pay-as-you-go system. After 15 years of having a private pension fund, Kazakhstan initiated the reversal of privatization in 2013. Simultaneously, the increase in the women's retirement age was announced as part of the reform. It is puzzling that while having the same starting point with other Post-Soviet states such as Russia and Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan decided to adopt a transitional approach compared to the former's translational one. This master thesis suggests that the fractionalization of the government in 1998 explains why the reform was adopted in the way it was. Coalition-building processes within the government accompanied by the power consolidation process in one’s hands by the 2010s as well as the rhetoric of state modernization could explain 2013’s reform. Using qualitative research methods this thesis claims that coalitions within the government and political dynamics of Kazakhstan caused these two reforms.