Effectiveness of digital feedback systems in Kazakhstan: macro and micro level analysis

Abstract

The article examines the effectiveness of digital interaction between the state and citizens within the framework of the “Listening State” concept. The purpose of the study is to evaluate the institutional dysfunctions of digital feedback channels in public policy using the example of the “E-Otinish” platform. D. Easton’s “input-output” model of the political system and the theory of street-level bureaucracy were adopted as the theoretical framework of the research. The study utilized a methodological triangulation design integrating macro- and micro-levels. At the macro level, a quantitative analysis of departmental data from the Committee on Legal Statistics and Special Records of the General Prosecutor’s Office of the Republic of Kazakhstan for 2015–2025 was conducted. At the micro level, a qualitative content analysis of official response letters returned to citizens by the Akimat of Aktobe region ( N  = 35) was carried out, alongside a structural comparative analysis of data from the North Kazakhstan Region (NKR) for 2019–2025. The quantitative analysis revealed a strong and highly significant statistical association (R 2  = 0.988) between the flow of requests entering the “E-Otinish” system and the complaints forwarded to the Presidential Administration, indicating a synchronized upward trend. The qualitative study identified a predominance of “institutional empathy deficit” (77.1%) and “defensive bureaucratic rhetoric” (82.9%) at the local level. The findings demonstrate that the transactional expansion of digital channels does not automatically increase the efficiency of public administration. The growth of citizens’ digital activity is becoming a macro-political indicator that highlights the resource and fiscal deficit and the crisis of decentralization at the local level.