The concept of the «Hearing state» in the context of the interaction of the state and civil society institutions

Abstract

Nowadays, Kazakhstan is at a new stage of democratization. One of the most important
manifestations of this process is the strengthening of interaction between state bodies and citizens. Head of
State K.K. Tokayev, in his Address to the people of Kazakhstan in 2019, voiced the idea of forming a “hearing
state”. It is designed to transform the interaction between the state apparatus and the population and bring it to a new level. In the implementation of this idea, the translation of this definition onto the plane of the
architecture of political processes with its structural elements is of particular importance. Revealing the essence
and key provisions of this concept, determining the subjects of influence on the adoption of state decisions, and,
in general, considering the concept through the prism of the theoretical foundations of interaction between the
state and citizens will allow us to comprehensively consider this approach to dialogue with the population.
The article provides an overview of theoretical approaches to examining the interaction between the state and
society: the concept of pluralistic democracy, corporatism, neo-corporatism, clientism, as well as the «network»
concept. In the context of these approaches, the subjects of interaction with the state, tools of interaction and
building a dialogue between the state and society, as well as the impact of civil society institutions on political
decision-making have been identified. The authors carried out a comparative analysis of these theoretical
approaches and the concept of «Hearing state» with the identification of characteristic features.
The author concludes that the concept of a «Hearing state» incorporates elements of a number of theoretical
concepts and is not a manifestation of strictly one of these approaches. Such an integrated approach to building
a dialogue with the population and its involvement in the political decision-making process is intended to
strengthen democratic principles in Kazakhstan.