The Evolution of the Political Legitimacy Foundation of Post-Soviet Central Asia

Political legitimacy foundations are bases which any government or leader needs in local and international system. If any political transition goes on transition without legitimacy, that will be failed. Rationalization of accepting a government or leader’s sovereignty defined as legitimacy is the dominant concern of rulers and straightly related to the state’s power and the level of multitude’s freedom. Therefore, regime survival which directly linked by legitimacy is the main issue of post-soviet central Asia leaders. By Weber, the central Asia leaders’ legitimacy defined through charismatic and traditional legitimacy, while by soviet dissolution and entrance of central Asian states to the international system as new political independent units, they encounter the modern foundation of legitimacy, which undermined their current legitimacy. In this descriptive-analytical essay, we are trying to present a structural perspective on today’s central Asian legitimacy according to the modern foundations of legitimacy to use as an analytical template for subsequent political transition.