Consensus without convergence: normative priorities and perceived social cleavages in Kazakhstan (nationwide survey, 2025)

Introduction This article examines how declared normative priorities, public orientations, perceived socially disapproved practices, and perceived social cleavages are articulated within Kazakhstan's adult population. It focuses on an emically grounded repertoire of values and social perceptions in contemporary Kazakhstan, with particular attention to the coexistence of value consensus, institutional distance, social inequality, and perceptions of corruption. Methods The article reports findings from a nationwide survey of Kazakhstan's adult population conducted in May–June 2025 ( n = 3,123). The survey was administered using computer-assisted personal interviewing (CAPI) within a stratified design with quota-controlled completion intended to approximate national representativeness. The survey was situated within a broader bilingual foresight program that also included 52 expert interviews and 20 focus groups involving 120 participants. The analysis examines declared normative priorities, perceived bases of value unity, perceived social cleavages, perceived prevalence of corruption, and selected exploratory respondent-level contrasts. Repeated-measures nonparametric tests were used to assess within-respondent ordering of perceived cleavage items. Results Respondents reported high declared support for core normative priorities, particularly health (95.5%), responsibility (93.6%), and integrity (91.9%). A large majority also recognized a basis for value unity in society (81.5%). At the same time, respondents reported pronounced perceptions of social cleavages, especially between officials and the public (79.4%) and between the affluent and the poor (75.1%). Corruption was commonly characterized as “widespread and ubiquitous” (56.1%). Within the realized sample, selected exploratory respondent-level contrasts indicated that recognition of value unity varied across categories of civic-engagement priority, perceived officials–public cleavage, perceived corruption prevalence, and post-2022 reflections. Repeated-measures nonparametric tests further indicated that institutional-socioeconomic cleavage items occupied higher positions than ethnolinguistic items in within-respondent ordering. Discussion The findings suggest that a strongly declared repertoire of shared normative priorities in Kazakhstan coexists with salient perceptions of institutional distance, socioeconomic inequality, and socially disapproved practices. The article contributes a survey-based account of how value unity and normative consensus are articulated alongside perceived social cleavages and corruption in contemporary Kazakhstan.