The article is devoted to the peculiar modes of formation and functioning of the Central Asian political systems in the late XX - early XXI centuries, and their further transformation (the Kazakhstan Republic is taken as an example). The author characterizes the inner and outer factors which shaped the formation of the Central Asian political regimes and draws a borderline between the open and closed models. The political systems formed in this region after 1991 are a classical example of the so called intergrated model combining some features of the oriental traditionalism and the western democracy. This problem is of great significance for the academic discussion about the relations of authocratism and democracy in the contemporary world, and about the potential of the authoritarian regimes to change.
