Global governance in Autocratic Context: The Implementation of EITI in Kazakhstan

Abstract: The paper evaluates the functioning of global standards arrangements in an autocratic context. Through the case of an international governance initiative the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI), the paper investigates how the standardised practices of global governance arrangements are implemented in post-Soviet state autocratic state of Kazakhstan. In doing so the present paper analysis the transnational character of the initiative and how it operates within the recipient country. The findings of the EITI in Kazakhstan illustrate, that domestic context and regime type influence the operationalisation of the initiative. The paper argues that the adoption of EITI standardised requirements follow a specific internal logic that disconnects from its initial purpose. The paper as such urges scholars and policy advisers to further investigate on how global governance arrangements transcend at domestic levels this particularly within autocratic regimes. The paper draws its analytical findings from interviews and survey analysis conducted in Kazakhstan in 2015.