Regime Transition in Central Asia presents a study of regime transition, political transformation, and the challenges that faced the post-Communist republics of Central Asia. It focuses on the process of transition in Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, and the obstacles that these newly-independent states are facing in the post-Communist period. The book analyses how in the early stages of their independence, the governments of Central Asia declared that they would build democratic states, but that in practice, they demonstrated that they are more inclined towards authoritarianism rather than democracy. It argues against the claim that the Central Asian states having undergone divergent paths of transition, and discusses how they are in fact all authoritarian, although exhibiting different degrees of authoritarianism. The book goes on to look at a new aspect of political transition in post-Soviet Central Asia, namely the patrimonial form of nationalism that was adopted by the elites in the post-independence era. It will be a useful contribution to studies in Central Asian Politics and International Relations.