Abstract
Rentier Capitalism and Its Discontents offers both a detailed empirical account and a sustained moral critique of the ways in which neoliberal reform translated into dispossession in post-Soviet Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan. Based on extensive case studies on credit/debt, land, real estate and the extraction of natural resources, Sanghera and Satybaldieva document the many ways in which national and international elites have enriched themselves at the expense of the local population. The book paints a gloomy picture of social suffering and environmental harms – what Michael Hudson’s foreword aptly calls Central Asia’s Neoliberal Tragedy – marked by the rise of oligarchic/kleptocratic rule, criminogenic environments and diverse mechanisms of rent extraction.
The book’s story follows a Polanyian analytical structure where a dominant movement of neoliberal appropriation is met by multiple subaltern counter-movements of social resistance demanding social justice. This double movement allows readers to observe not only the creation of fictitious commodities (land, labour and money) but also the development of protests against the commodification of what used to be public goods. We see, for example, the transformation of the ‘Soviet welfare state’ into ‘post-Soviet debtfare states’ (p. 32), but also debtors of different classes organising protest against predatory lending and usury. The book, however, does not stop at the portrayal of Central Asia’s political economy, but engages with its moral economy: the ethical dimension of economic practices and the way actors criticise/justify/denounce the situations they find themselves in (Sayer, 2011).
At the same time, Sanghera and Satybaldieva also provide readers with a moral vocabulary to evaluate and understand the social worlds they examine. In this respect, the book contributes to revive the use of categories such as unearned income that, in spite of their huge importance, have been sidelined for many decades in mainstream discourse (Sayer, 2015). Indeed, rent-seeking and unearned income function as key analytical categories in the book. With their help, the authors shed light on the logics of wealth extraction giving shape to post-Soviet landscapes: from the construction of luxury apartments amid widespread poverty to the illegitimate appropriation of formerly public spaces by private elites.
Sanghera and Satybaldieva are surely right in highlighting the centrality of rent-seeking practices in post-Soviet Central Asia. Yet, questions remain about the extent to which post-Soviet rentier states may have been shaped by Soviet rent-seeking practices and structures – and also about the reasons why rent-seeking may have become more entrenched in some post-Soviet countries than in others. For, although many forms of rent were officially banned in the Soviet Union, this does not necessarily mean that rentierism played no role in the really-existing Soviet economy. One may not agree with the ideological premises of public choice theory, but the argument that rent-seeking was a defining feature of the Soviet economic and political systems (Anderson and Boettke, 1997) cannot be ignored and would deserve empirical interrogation with materials from Central Asia.
This point aside, Rentier Capitalism and Its Discontents enriches our picture of how wealth concentration has taken place beyond the capitalist West. Many of the arguments advanced by Sanghera and Satybaldieva’s comparative analysis resonate with processes unfolding in different parts of the world, from the United States and the United Kingdom to Latin America – which is perhaps not surprising given the turn towards rentierism that global capitalism has taken since the 1970s (Mazzucato, 2018). These parallels are not only thought-provoking but have important implications for scholars and activists. For example, activists seeking to form solidarity networks across the globe, including with Central Asian movements, would be well-advised to consult this valuable book.
Rentier Capitalism and Its Discontents is a work grounded in conversation with multiple disciplines, from moral theory to political economy, and informed by a deep knowledge of Central Asia. The book is both an excellent example of what Andrew Sayer (2011) terms post-/pre-disciplinary forms of social inquiry and a major contribution to the study of moral and political economies of post-Soviet Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan. As such, it will serve as a reference point for anyone interested in how rent-seeking and extractivism work globally. Translations into other languages, not least those of the post-Soviet world, would be very welcome.