Kazakh Sultanat: Should Kazakhstan become a Constitutional Monarchy?

The president's son in-law, Rakhat Aliyev, appears to believe that a constitutional monarchy would be the best system of governance for Kazakhstan, or at least that is the gist of his latest article in the newspaper Karavan. Given that Mr. Aliyev was accused earlier this year by a former Kazakh security officer of being behind the murder of Altynbek Sarsenbayev, it is interesting that Mr. Aliyev has chosen the day after the sentencing of Sarsenbayev’s alleged killers to unveil his grand plan for a Kazakh Sultanat.

In some ways, Aliyev’s suggestion that Kazakhstan would be well served by a constitutional monarchy makes a lot of sense. I have often said the same (only half seriously) to friends about all of the Central Asian states given the sense of respect that is given to leaders in the region and the desire of the region’s present leaders to remain in power indefinitely. Let them and their families enjoy their privileged lot as long as it does not interfere with the real challenge of governance. The problem, of course, is that constitutional monarchies evolve from absolute monarchies and not from semi-authoritarian republics. A monarch classically draws his/her lineage from dynasties reaching back generations if not centuries and not from a bureaucrat who happened to inherit power after an empire has fallen. If the readers’ comments from the “zonakz” website are any indication, Kazakhstanis are not ready to swallow the pill that Mr. Aliyev is peddling, especially given how the plan would obviously benefit he who is suggesting it.