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Abstract: A large number of citizens in Central Asian societies have recently gained access to the Internet, which provides an excellent opportunity for examining political consequences of the spread of digital technology in non-democracies. This article analyzes the relationship between youth media consumption and confidence in the electoral process in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. This study finds that exposure to web-based news produces a significant negative impact on youth's confidence in electoral institutions in Kazakhstan, while online news consumption is weakly associated with young people's confidence in the integrity of the electoral process in Kyrgyzstan. These findings suggest that the impact of online media might be stronger in political regimes with lower levels of press freedom.
Central Asian societies have recently experienced spectacular growth in Internet use.1 The share of Internet users soared from 1 percent in 2001 to 50.6 percent in 2011 in Kazakhstan.2 The proportion of Internet users also grew, albeit at a slower pace, in Kyrgyzstan, increasing from 3 percent in 2001 to 20 percent in 2011. A related phenomenon was a surge in secure Internet servers, defined as servers using encryption technology in Netcraft. The number of secure Internet servers climbed from 8 (2001) to 105 (2011) in Kazakhstan and from 1 (2001) to 14 (2011) in Kyrgyzstan.3 By the same token, there occurred a dramatic growth in online content. According to the Internet Domain Survey semi-annually conducted by the Internet Systems Consortium, the number of Internet hosts with the country domain name kz skyrocketed from 4,404 in January 2001 to 61,205 in July 2011.4 Likewise, the number of Internet hosts with the country domain name kg exponentially increased from 1,873 in January 2001 to 111,930 in July 2011. Yet, it is unclear whether this rapid spread of digital technology poses a formidable threat to political stability in the non-democratic regimes that have been installed in the former Soviet republics since the collapse of communism.
Scholars disagree over the political implications of rapidly increasing Internet use in non-democracies. Internet optimists argue that the Internet has the potential to instantly connect a large number of citizens, swiftly disseminate information, and eventually facilitate mass mobilization against the incumbent government.5 Larry Diamond, for example, uses the term "liberation technology" to denote "any form of...