Political System: Reforms, Election, Cadres

摘要

The election to parliament's lower chamber, the Mazhilis, held in August and the reshuffle of the government have drawn a line under the process of political reforms conducted earlier this year. Back in the 1990s, Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev adhered to principle of economic reforms being more important than the political ones, building a strong administrative vertical, when the country had a formally liberal economy. All the political novelties carried out in the country at that time to some extent aimed to strengthen (not tighten) the current political regime. The reform carried out in 2007 was no exception. It was carried out on the basis of transferring a number of powers of the executive to parliament. While comparing the amended and the former wording of the country's constitution it is hard not to notice that the strengthening of the powers of parliament bears exclusively an "editing" nature.