After the fall of the Soviet Union, a number of Eastern Bloc countries and Soviet republics have witnessed political transition. However, Turkmenistan, as one of the former Soviet republics, succeeded to preserve the authoritarian nature of the former Soviet regime. This study seeks to answer a number of research questions, the most prominent of which are: How were the political elite in Turkmenistan able to preserve the legacy of the Soviet policy based on centralization of power and individual rule?. The study reaches a set of conclusions, the most important of which are:
1-The roots of the tyranny in Turkmenistan are du to internal and external structural factors. The most important of which are: the former Soviet policies of marginalization and regional trade-offs, regional and tribal conflict, internal and external political leadership trends, in addition to the international powers competitions over the natural resources in Turkmenistan.
2- The Ashgabat tribe is considered the most ambitious of the Turkmen tribes for power, and this is the reason for its suppression during the Soviet era. Therefore, The tribes of Ashgabat sought to dominate the political life in the post-independence era.
3-Political leaders play an important role in enhancing authoritarianism, which is evident through the leadership of both presidents Sapir Murad Niyazov and Qurban Muhamadov.
