Having been back in the United States for a little over a month, I can say that my perspective has changed quite a bit. Things that were suddenly false became true again; the best example came in my Intro. to Political Economics class, in which we were discussing the classic pin factory example from Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations. While the division of labor seems to be an economic Truth (right up there with the law of supply and demand). However, I now realize that, in fact, the workers are trapped within a classic prisoners’ dilemma - they can cheat on the factory - stealing equipment or produce, while the others suffer in marginal losses or remain loyal and risk suffering their own losses if their co-workers cheat on the system. Though this evaluation might seem a bit twisted, it in fact neatly sums up the political economy of Central Asia, in my perception. While in the United States we might take for granted that the workers are loyal to the company for whatever reason (i.e. they believe in job security or in fair meritocratic advancement up the corporate ladder), Central Asia seems to follow the variously Russian, French and Iraqi proverb “after me, a flood” - that is, after I am finished, there can be a flood for all I care, since I no longer have any interest in what was lost. Without some form of participation in the company, there is no incentive for work, bringing us to Central Asia’s current malaise. Although Mongolia and (in theory) Kyrgyzstan have stock markets, I doubt either functions efficiently (if at all) - I remember walking past a building in Bishkek marked ’stock market’, only to look in and find it empty (but perhaps it was a lunch break!). Anyway, what you get is a lot of cheating and a little development - everyone tries to maximize their own short-term interest at the great cost of any long-term benefit. Businessmen are trapped by the current system into cheating (that is, bribing officials, disobeying laws, nonpayment of taxes, etc.) and, having no way to imagine anything different, are content to live out life (though I’d imagine that the average Intro. to PoliEc student, not knowing about a system other than that based on Smith’s principles, would be pretty happy to live within it as well, believing (correctly or otherwise) that the benefit of staying with the company outweighed the benefit of cheating. This is, of course, to say nothing of the state or its relationship with citizens and the public in general. But that’s a subject for another day…