On the afternoon of the 30th, the "30th Anniversary of the Independence of Central Asian Countries and the 20th National Seminar on Central Asian Issues" was held by video link. The fourth group of experts and scholars of the seminar published the latest research results. Excerpts from the five statements (audio recordings, or errors) are as follows:
1. Political developments in Central Asian countries and the Russian factor
Xue Fuqi: Member of the Silk Road New Observation Think Tank, Researcher of the Institute of Russian, Eastern European and Central Asian Studies of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences
In the 30 years of independence of the Central Asian states, they are faced with a threefold task, commonly known as the triple transition: the establishment of a nation-state for independence, the establishment of a market economy and the establishment of a competitive democratic system. All three missions are unfamiliar to Central Asia, so the task is also very difficult.
Unlike many Third World countries, the independence of the Central Asian countries was not the result of a long period of national liberation movements and struggles, but the result of the Soviet Union's "dumping of baggage." Therefore, the Central Asian countries lack a multifaceted understanding of the independence from the Soviet Union in the true sense of the word.
After a brief period of confusion and confirmation of independence, the Central Asian countries completed the framework construction of the new system in a short period of time.
Characteristics of political practice: The relationship between political power and society is one-sided and unbalanced, which constitutes the main feature of the political development of Central Asian countries in the 30 years of independence, but this unbalanced relationship basically guarantees the stability of the country. Of course, this situation is clearly unsustainable.
The result of political practice: the high concentration of resources, including power assets, in the hands of privileged groups; the reduction in the number of political and social actors to a minimum; these systems now maintain the status quo; this is in fact a communal capitalist society, which involves not only countries with oil and gas resources; weak institutions, the root cause of which is that the new elite has no intention of establishing stable institutions.
Russian factor
If we want to talk about external factors in the development of Central Asian countries, such as the influence of the West and Turkey, the most important factor is Russia.
Russia later maintained its influence over regional countries by establishing integrated institutions.
Relations between Russia and the countries of Central Asia are asymmetrical, unbalanced, unequal and characterized by a series of one-dimensional dependencies.
Through 30 years of development, the Central Asian countries have their institutional frameworks, regimes and social interaction models in place, but their governance performance is generally poor. In the context of the current major international changes, the development of Central Asian countries depends on many factors, but first of all, it is internal factors: 1. Ideological resources, the construction of the Central Asian system may have many frames of reference, but its own ideological resources are the key point, whether it can learn from the past; 2. Political assets are highly concentrated in the hands of a small number of elites, the political market is not open, and it is difficult for new forces to play a role. 3. The solidification of social structure and changes in demographic structure pose challenges to governance, but at the same time they face the problem of lack of development.
2. Intergenerational transmission of power in Central Asia and the reproduction of national elites
Sun Chao: Associate Professor of the Research Center for International Studies at the Party School of the Jiangsu Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of China
After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the political transition in Eurasia took on a new direction in the 1990s, with liberal democracy widely regarded liberal democracy as the ultimate goal of the transition in terms of values and ideology. It can be said that the emergence of a new state is the fourth wave of democratization.
The fourth wave is very different from the third wave: the certainty of values, the uncertainty of direction.
In the early stage of political system building, the Central Asian countries were in fact relatively stable. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, in the early days of the establishment of the government, there were indeed many threats in various countries, and it was easy for The Central Asian countries to reach an agreement. A stable presidential system cannot help consolidate the advantages of state management in order to promote the political construction of the Central Asian countries and achieve the dual development of the state and the family.
Each country not only adopted the constitution, but also held a referendum to support the establishment of a presidential system, so the five countries of Central Asia quickly adopted the constitution.
Some Western scholars regard it as a "big guy presidential system", and through the construction of such a "big guy presidential system", political confrontation is basically eliminated. But there is one country exception, kyrgyzstan.
Under the influence of the "big-man presidential system", a new asylum system emerged in Central Asia, which relied on ethnic, tribal, regional and other traditional politics to form a power network centered on the central government.
What if there were some changes in the president's body or the country's form of government? It can be seen that the level of governance of the president in the short term is very important, and it can be determined whether the semi-presidential system is continuous, but for a long time there has been mutual cooperation and mutual struggle between the elites, so if this system does not conform to the distribution of rights and the price paid among the elites, then the system must be changed, and the political system is very stable.
Central Asia has its peculiarities, and many leaders in Central Asia have a mentality of establishing family leaders, so it is easy to form a ruling system dominated by such a large family. When it comes to dealing with challenges, national elites must take advantage of their patronage and family networks. In turn, if you gain your own dominant position, you will also find ways to enhance the interests of your family or group and promote the realization of the goals of the entire group.
The elites of the Central Asian countries have only one goal for the construction of the entire country, without the transcendent presence of the president, that is, to ensure the advantage of the family and to ensure the stability of society and the state system.
The mentality of establishing family leadership is a product of the special historical period of Central Asia.
In fact, the reproduction of the elite is a process of transforming a political elite into a political-economic elite, not the other way around. Therefore, the economy has a role in the production of the elite, but it is of little value, as long as it can hold the power in its hands, then it can distribute social resources, and it can reproduce the elite group.
3. Codification of the Civil Code after the independence of the five Central Asian countries
Jin Xin: Assistant Researcher, Center for Central Asian Studies, Shaanxi Normal University
After the establishment of the modern state, it is necessary to carry out a system construction. Because the type of rule of the modern state is legal, we know that to establish a constitution, we must also codify a civil code.
During the Soviet period, there were also civil laws, and the republics compiled their own civil codes according to the outline, but this civil code itself was still a repetition of the legislative outline because it did not have much legislative autonomy.
The real self-compilation of the Civil Code was still after independence. The first country to codify a civil code was Uzbekistan, the second was Kazakhstan and the third was Kyrgyzstan. These three civil codes are structurally modeled on basically all Russian civil codes. Tajikistan did not complete its first civil code until 1999, and the structure is also a reference to Russia.
Structurally, the civil codes of the Central Asian countries are based on Russia and then on the model civil codes of the CIS countries.
In Central Asia, for example, civil law may play an important role in social integration and state integration than the constitution. First of all, it is a system of rules for social life. Secondly, the most prominent thing in Central Asia is that the constitution is revised too frequently because of a change in the political structure, and many times it is to be torn down, reformed, and constantly changed.
But civil law is the norm of life, and it will only be partially revised and modified, because people's lives have a certain stability, so it may have a better role than the practice to build national identity and build a nation-state.
In the case of Central Asia, although the civil code can play such a role, there are several problems.
The first is that the civil code borrows too much from foreign countries, does not conduct a survey of civil customs in the country, and basically foreigners participate in the formulation of the leading civil code. Secondly, because the time for the independence of the Central Asian countries is relatively short, and the time for the construction of the state is relatively short, the Russian language still has a very strong leading role in the entire legal language, and the national language has retreated to the second place. Third, because these countries only have a history of 30 years, they lack the corresponding academic works and theories as support when interpreting laws, and they also lack corresponding precedents.
The legal traditions of Central Asia are very confusing, and how to incorporate them into the current law requires a lot of work. In the process of "transplanting" the law, it is very convenient to "transplant" commercial law and economic law, but there are many obstacles to individual rights and personal issues, so this problem will verify that many laws in Central Asia are very limited in timeliness.
The 30 years of the Central Asian countries are a very small period of time, so it is still in a very basic stage, there is still a process of mutual adaptation between law and society, and its entire development prospects need to be further observed.
4. Analysis of the reform of the medical system in the Bukhara Khanate
Kang Lina: Lecturer at the Institute of Central Asian Studies, Shaanxi Normal University
Although this is a historical issue, through the reform of the medical system in the Bukhara Khanate, we can understand the medical situation in modern Central Asia and the medical system in Central Asia today.
Overall, the summary is that the tradition is backward, there is a lack of medical treatment, the medical and health system is weak, and the health status of the people is not optimistic.
The whole of Central Asia, including the Burha Khanate, was treated first and foremost on the basis of the Islamic purge and hygiene officers, using folk medicine, so there was a high incidence and mortality rate in the local area.
The Khanate has never had a modern medical education institution and professional medical personnel, mainly barefoot doctors and witch doctors, and the number is relatively small.
Medicine is relatively limited, and mainly folk medicinal materials, the efficacy is not very good.
The local government pays little attention to the health of the people, mainly through the policy of ignorance, believing that whether or not to be sick is determined by Allah Allah.
After the Rule of Russia, the historical process of Central Asia has undergone radical changes, and with the increase in the number of Russian immigrants and the development of local social economy, the reform of the medical system related to the health of the people is imminent. For Russia, it was necessary to reform the medical system in the khanate.
After Russian rule, the modern medical institutions in the khanate increased significantly, but they were mainly concentrated in The immigrant cities of Russia and some large cities such as Bukhara or Karshi, which were far from meeting the huge medical needs of this 3 million people.
Another point is that the funds of these ready-made medical institutions are mainly borne by the khanate government, but the service objects are mainly Russian officials and immigrants, etc., and it is difficult for local residents to enjoy better medical services, so the medical security system of the khanate needs to be improved and perfected.
Although there are many problems in the reform of the medical system, it is the first step in the modernization of medical undertakings in the Bukhara Khanate. The arrival of the Russian rulers opened a door to progress and openness to the Central Asian region to a certain extent, allowing the local population to understand the wider world and touch a more rational and advanced scientific culture, which is an unequal exchange of civilizations, but it has enriched the achievements of civilization in modern Central Asia and promoted the development process of Central Asian history.
By understanding the medical services and institutional reforms of the khanate, we also gained an understanding of its social and economic development. This will help strengthen China's medical cooperation with Central Asian countries under the framework of the "Belt and Road" and promote the construction of China's Central Asian health community.
5. The self and self-knowledge of Central Asian women under the triple structure
Mao Jianping: Lecturer at the School of Politics and International Relations, Lanzhou University
Central Asian women, how they see themselves, how they choose their way of life, how they see the world, naturally have a lot to do with the political and social situation in which they live.
If the resources related to modernism, the islamic currents and activities of the times, and the remnants of Soviet socialism that I have listed here are indeed the main structural relations in the central political society that affect the daily practice of individuals, it is of great academic and social significance to open up the complementarity between these three-tier structures and specific women.
We explore how these structures act on specific people, how individuals accept them consciously and unconsciously to varying degrees, and how they influence and change their own state of life. And how this state of life itself in turn acts on these background grand porous structural relationships.
Because of such a structural relationship, it is not said at a very high level, only at the level of a political ideology, or at the level of some policy and law. Or what we call culture, but culture seems to be far away from us, such a level. No, in fact these things are everywhere, pervasive, can not be sorted out of their level, but they are affecting us. Therefore, I just want to say that the actions and choices of each of us, the life situation of each of us, of course, here is the life situation of central Asian women, how does he in turn act on these backgrounds, such structures?
Another question I also want to ask, under the influence and inscription of these structures, the human body is acted upon by these things, whether it is thoughts, clothing, or our daily behavior, which is the embodiment of these things, so I use the word inscription, under the influence of these structures and inscriptions, is it possible for individuals to open up other living spaces?
Therefore, if I want to give specific research results, I will definitely choose a specific group of people, but at the moment I would like to learn more about the women of Central Asia, which is one of my expectations.
Then, here I would like to ask the teachers a thing, because I know that everyone has a very extensive and very deep connection with Central Asia, can you help me introduce more women in Central Asia, and then let me have a good chat with them, thank you!
(Article record collation: Song Xin)
Source: Silk Road New Observations
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