Policy Successes in Central Asia and Caucasus

Mainstream academic literature, international reports and media coverage have long portrayed the post-Soviet governments as corrupt, ineffective and unaccountable. However, this unyielding narrative obscures a more complex and diverse reality.

Drawing on policy success frameworks, this edited collection presents 10 diverse case studies within a novel under-researched geographical region – Central Asia and the Caucasus.

These cases include civil service reform in Georgia, sovereign oil fund governance in Azerbaijan, electric vehicle adoption in Armenia, public service innovations in Uzbekistan, national immunisation rollouts in Kyrgyzstan, higher education reforms in Turkmenistan and state-sponsored scholarship programmes in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan.

This book shows how, across Central Asia and the Caucasus, genuine policy successes are quietly reshaping public services, improving lives and demonstrating what effective governance can look like in non-democratic and hybrid contexts. A must-read for anyone studying evidence-based models of governance, policy success and positive public administration.