The Woodrow Wilson Center Press
The Politics of Elections in Southeast Asia
Though most governments in Southeast Asia are widely described as authoritarian, elections have been a feature of politics in the region for many decades. This volume, bringing together eleven separate studies by leading authorities, examines the countries that have conducted multi-party elections since the 1940s and 1950s -- Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand, Cambodia, Burma/Myanmar, and Singapore. It identifies the common and distinguishing features of electoral politics in the region. The contributors to this volume, unlike most earlier students of politics in Southeast Asia, conclude that it is not something peculiar to the political culture of the region that shapes its political behavior. It is, rather, the same political forces and structures that shape politics in North America and Europe.
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Chapter List
Introduction: The Study of Elections in the Politics of Southeast Asia, R. H. Taylor
Elections and Participation in Three Southeast Asian Countries, Benedict R. Anderson
A Useful Fiction: Democratic Legitimization in New Order Indonesia, R. William Liddle
Elections Without Representation: The Singapore Experience Under the PAP, Garry Rodan
Elections' Janus Face: Limitations and Potential in Malaysia, K. S. Jomo
Malaysia: Do elections Make a Difference?, Harold Crouch
Contested Meanings of Elections in the Philippines, Benedict J. Tria Kerkvliet
Elections in Burma/Mynmar: For Whom and Why?, R. H. Taylor
Elections and Democratization in Thailand, Suchit Bunbongkarn
A Tale of Two Democracies: Conflicting Perceptions of Elections in Thai Politics, Anek Laothamatas
The Cambodian Elections of 1993: A Case of Power to the People?, Kate G. Frieson
Afterword, Dan S. Lev