Explaining Political Order in Uzbekistan

UZIN Paper nº.3 (2014)

This paper explains the cohesion of security institutions as a consequence of resource rents that critically influences how local elites leverage local offices of state security. It examines economies with low capital mobility—where resources cannot be extracted, concealed, or transported to market without state patronage and involvement. In cou control over resources into rents. In order to generate a worthwhile profit, bales of cotton or loads of grain are simply too large and too heavy to extract, transport, and sell outside state surveillance. Local elites, working under constraints that prevent them from independently exploiting the resources under them, are therefore forced to seek out political patrons.