Approche institutionnelle de l'analyse de la transition (le cas de l'agriculture du Nord-Kazakhstan)[Institutional approach for transition analysis (the case of Northern Kazakhstan's agriculture)]

The causes of the failure of the neoclassical approach to the economic transition in the countries formerly belonging to the Soviet Union are analyzed at a general level and then in the specific case of agriculture in North Kazakhstan. Three dimensions of Soviet-type economic institutions (legislation, organizations and culture) enter into the general analysis. Among the basic notions that are cursorily presented, attention is drawn to the economic culture. A description of the characteristics of Soviet agricultural institutions (state-owned land, collective farms, state farms, individual plots and local authorities in rural areas) completes this analysis at the general level. These theoretical patterns then serve to analyze the first two phases (stabilization and introduction of the market) in the neoclassical transition strategy as applied to farming in North Kazakhstan. In this area, the institutions inherited from the Soviet era continue to survive, sometimes under a slightly disguised form. They account for both the non-completion of a real transition and the gradual decline in farming. In these conditions, the third phase (structural corrections) of the transition under the neoclassical paradigm cannot be envisioned. Alternative proposals based on an institutional approach are presented.