Conventional comparative studies on the determinants of individual citizens'' political support of current political regimes have largely focused on democratic and democratizing political regimes. However, comparable quantitative analyses pertaining to authoritarian regimes are rare. Using data from the 2005 Asia Barometer, we examine determinants of political support of the current political regimes in Central Asia by means of quantitative multivariate analysis. Central Asia has figured prominently as a region exhibiting stable authoritarian rule in some countries such as Uzbekistan as well as fruitless efforts of democratization in others such as Kyrgyzstan. In doing so, the study applies the theoretical model of democratic political support as developed by Dieter Fuchs and similarly presented by Pippa Norris to a non-democratic context. Furthermore, the article takes up arguments concerning the relevance of political values on the one hand and socio-economic and political performance on the other hand for political support by drawing on theories on authoritarian regimes pertaining to legitimizing factors such as authoritarian values, pseudo-democratic elections, religion, clan structure and rentier state theory. Thus, the analysis contributes to the study of factors that contribute to the stability or destabilization of the different types of authoritarian political regimes in Central Asia.
