The paper approaches the problem of differentiation of strategies implemented by individual countries in the institutional competition for foreign investments by looking at the experience of Kazakhstan. It basically focuses on the contradiction between political bias and political survival effects as driving forces for development and implementation of formal economic institutions. Kazakhstan demonstrates how the shift of relative importance of these two aspects significantly influenced the country’s position in competing for FDI. Moreover, the paper looks at the relative importance of individual levels of institutional competition in a globalizing economy.