Sagadiyeva, Aruzhan2021-05-132021-05-132021-05-11Sagadiyeva, A. (2021). Social Taboos and Political Legitimation: Debating Polygyny in Post-Soviet Kazakhstan (Unpublished master's thesis). Nazarbayev University, Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstanhttp://nur.nu.edu.kz/handle/123456789/5390Kazakhstan is the only post-Soviet state that decriminalized polygyny. It did so quietly in 1997. Yet, since then, the Kazakhstani government repeatedly allowed public discussions on the legalization of polygyny, a taboo topic. Drawing on my interviews with policy-makers, I argue that Kazakhstani leaders appear to strive for the public acceptance of polygyny as a normal condition of life for the members of the ruling elite. They justify the normalcy of polygamous families by connecting polygyny to historical precedents, Islamic norms and Kazakh customs. As a result, polygyny is gradually perceived as commonplace for the rulers, while members of de-facto polygamous families might gain material and symbolic benefits. However, I also show that the circumcised public debate about polygyny enhances the public image of the rulers. Yet this debate lacks deep deliberation about state-religion and gender relations. I also explore the manipulative nature of this polygyny debate. Drawing on the content analysis of the media stories and Google Trends internet search statistics, I show that Kazakhstani leaders are more likely to 1) provoke the beginning of the public discussions of the legalization of polygyny as a short-term tactic to distract public attention from regime-threatening issues, and 2) stop discussing polygyny when the threat to the regime disappears. Drawing on the theories of agenda-building and authoritarian deliberation, I explore the timing, the length and the degree of the shallowness of the public debate over the legalization of polygyny. The lack of discussions of the decriminalization of polygyny in 1997, the short-lived debates on the legalization of polygyny in 2001 and 2008, as well as the weakness of the claims and arguments made during the deliberation of the initiative to legalize polygyny could be indicative of the manipulative nature of the attention-diverting tactic. My findings about the use of social taboos contribute to theories of personal and political legitimation of authoritarian rulers.enAttribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 United StatesType of access: Gated Accesslegalization of polygynytabooResearch Subject Categories::SOCIAL SCIENCESMaster's thesis