Consuming the State

Abstract

Abstract This chapter explores the phenomenon of spontaneous rallies and contentions organized by groups united by demands for additional and often unsanctioned welfare, namely mothers with multiple children who unite sporadically to seek material gains from the Kazakhstani state. Other groups, especially nationalist and populist groups, are similarly demanding that the state write off certain citizens’ consumer debts on the grounds of these citizens’ rights to share the country’s resources. What unites them is how they justify their demands, even though the protesters are aware that their claims bypass the legal structures already in place. The demands for additional assistance—in the form of housing or of canceling one’s debts—are essentially calls for redistribution, even at the price of discriminating against other groups. These protesters’ claims emanate from the illiberal values these citizens have developed over the years spent living under an illiberal regime with endemic mass-scale corruption.