How have Central Asians built livelihoods amidst economic hardship and political dysfunction during three decades of post-Soviet independence? Local leaders are mobilizing people, resources—and, importantly, trust—to enable entire communities to prosper. These nonstate figures are increasingly consequential, but their model of paternalistic patronage may not represent what all Central Asians want.

From local to national politics, the state, the party, and the personal interests of elites have merged into one machine.

[T]he ICC's intervention did not help prompt a political transition, but was instead effectively framed as an injustice and used by the defendants and their supporters to mobilize political support.