The Phenomenon of Bicameralism in Countries with Authoritarian Regimes: the Case of Turkmenistan

There are several explanations for the emergence of bicameralism. Supporters of the «elite» model believe that the creation of a second chamber is necessary to protect the interests of the landed aristocracy from the populism of the «people’s» chamber. Committed to the «territorial» model, they argue that a bicameral system is needed to ensure that the interests of individual states and provinces are represented. Another explanation for the creation of the second chambers of parliaments is the desire of authoritarian leaders to use them to strengthen the possibilities for co-opting elites and organizing concessions to potential opposition. Finally, some researchers believe that this is caused by the authoritarian leaders’ desire to legitimize and disguise the constitutional changes necessary to preserve power. The explanatory power of traditional theoretical approaches in relation to the creation of second chambers in authoritarian regimes is questioned. The object of the study is Turkmenistan, where the second chamber of Parliament (Halk Maslahaty) was established in early 2021. The research method is the method of studying specific cases (process tracing). The theoretical basis was the concept of institutional change in general and institutional “entrepreneurs” in particular. It is shown that the establishment of the second chamber was due to the desire of the authoritarian leader to ensure the continuation of the political course by his successor in the medium term.