Kustov, I: Institutions of Civil Society: Cross-National Stu

This study examines the impact of civil society institutions, introduced by non-governmental organizations (NGOs), measured by concepts of political culture and public participation (political behavior), on the quality of politics measured by the level of corruption (power structure) and social discrimination (clusters of social structure) in Kyrgyzstan and Russia. The inquiry also aims at revealing the relationship between these variables. Three major research strategies are used: (1) a qualitative and quantitative analysis of country-level data, (2) cross-national case studies and (3) survey in the form of interviews and questionnaires (field research). Data has been also collected from archives, published reports, newspapers and other primary and secondary sources. The major focus of this study is on the units of analysis such as non-governmental organizations. It is based not only on original official and academic material but also on over 100 interviews and 300 questionnaires with leaders of the national and regional elite from both Kyrgyzstan and Russia.