Social Institutions in Kazakhstan
For many people, the word “Social Institution” can be defined as an education centre. In
reality, by the dictionary of Cambridge University, the word “Institution” really means organization
such as university, while the word “Social” from the word society means organized way of a group of
people. Summing up these two meanings, it is possible to understand that “Social Institution” means
an organized way of education for a group of people, in our case, it is for all people all over the world
and not an education which generally means learning physical formulas or chemical reactions, it is
basic and main knowledge for a human being; how to behave; how to communicate in certain
conditions; how to be a part of humanity. Kazakhstan is also not an exception in the “Social
Institution”, we are also part of humanity, we also have social institutions such as religion, education,
family, media and politics. The last two ones are the most powerful for the mind of people which can
affect many people at a moment. The politics and media of Kazakhstan are interdependent but are
they can be really counted as a social institution of Kazakhstan that affects the people’s behaviour in
the right way.
The Republic of Kazakhstan is a unitary dominant-party presidential republic, from this it can
be formed that the main political power is in the hand of one person with its surroundings due to the
fact that Kazakhstan is one of the post-soviet union countries, countries that have the analogical
conditions. I am not trying to say that it is good or bad, it is just a fact and it has its own pros and cons.
Politics has an enormous impact on people life, because of the politics of Kazakhstan some people are
getting richer and richer, but others are still poor, as President Kassym-Jomart Kemelevich Tokayev
said “more than 50% of the wealth of Kazakhstan are in the hands of only 150 people”. This fact is
strongly related to the politics of Kazakhstan, where control of the money circulation in the economy
is poorly developed. It could seem like an economic problem and not connected to the social
institutions of Kazakhstan, but because of these facts behaviour of people and their communication
related to the government is getting worse and worse.
A major part of the citizens of Kazakhstan do not strongly believe in the government and its
politics, but in reality, it should be vice versa where politics should control and show the right way of
being a human in the modern world and how to behave to make the country and its citizens wealthier
and happier. The last events which happened in the territory of Kazakhstan especially in Almaty and
Mangystau are the evidence of my words.
On the other side, it is ok to understand the real conditions where we are living, but we should
not forget that the main position and objective of the social institutions are proper instructions and
ways of behaving for the people. Politics is not only the government, it is also a law. From our birth,
we have rights and after some time we get responsibilities. In this way, the Constitution of Kazakhstan
is working well enough, but the people who are responsible for the control of the laws are not behaving
in the proper way, which makes the social institution of Kazakhstan dirty.
Previously mentioned that media and politics are interdependent in Kazakhstan, telling the
truth they are not interdependent, media is dependent to the politics to 80 to 90%. Almost everything
which people are hearing or watching from the mass media, especially the main TV channels such as
Qazaqstan and Khabar are showing us only the top of the Iceberg where most of the information is
pretty clear and harmless to the politics. Knowing the fact that almost all people from kids to elderly
people are using at least one way of sharing information (media), it is possible to say that media is the
biggest “social institution” in the modern world. The last scientific researches affirm that four-fifths
of the information we are getting from the surface of the internet and the TV programs can prove the
fact that we are not what we eat, we are what we see. Education, religion, family are part of our life,
but modern world conditions prove otherwise.
In Kazakhstan, we are always seeing the life of bloggers and media stars, and most of the
Kazakhstan citizens are trying to be like them which is approximately impossible because of the
misconceptions. Bloggers are advertising the bets, lotteries and finance pyramids, instead of showing
the right ways of human behaviour, how to make the country brighter. Why people are in Kazakhstan
are not showing the best results in the sport or science, do you think that they are not showing good
results. No, citizens of Kazakhstan are showing amazing results in sports or science, but media people
or bloggers have turned people’s minds to the other side, where money is everything.
As I said media is dependent on politics, so if politicians are command bloggers and media
people, all power will be in the hands of certain people. With help of media such as Instagram,
Facebook, TV, WhatsApp everything can be controlled and change our minds about Kazakhstan, we
are not living in the reality and not strongly trying to be politically active citizens of Kazakhstan which
will have its effect on the foreseeable future.
In the conclusion, the most powerful “social institutions” of Kazakhstan are not well developed
in the proper way. Maybe because of the only 30 years of Kazakhstan’s independence or our mentality,
but “social institutions” must have a positive impact on society and human behaviour. Kazakhstan is
not the only country with this kind of feature of conditions. We hope that in the near future social
institutions of Kazakhstan will be better. I think that if all “social institutions” will get their
independence from each other, the situation can be stabilized.