Even if post-Soviet Kazakhstan has obtained an impressive economic growth and has democratic institutions formally present, democratization has been rather unsuccessful, also when compared to quite a few other former communist states. To what degree may the failure of democracy be ascribed to Kazakhstan s economic reliance on oil revenues? This book analyzes the Kazakh political transition since the time of independence in 1991 until 2007. A feature that differentiates Kazakhstan from several other former communist states is its significant petroleum resources. Thus, it is interesting to see...