Authoritarianism in Southeast Asian Politics

Session Submission Type: Created Panel

Session Description

The papers in this panel focus on issues of authoritarian politics in Southeast Asia. The panel brings together research across the region, focusing on the diverse roles of public opinion, religious institutions, and the military. Hendrickson argues that Myanmar’s public is increasingly disillusioned with reform and she points to a generational divide where the older population is increasingly frustrated with the slow speed of reform. Howe’s paper addresses the contradictions in the role of religion in states that adhere to Marxist ideologies, finding that state capacity affects the strategies that regimes employ to engage religious actors. Won emphasizes structural conditions and bureaucratic institutions as the key determinants of regime durability in South Korea and Malaysia. Lee puts forward a theory of military populism drawing on several Thai military regimes over the last sixty years and demonstrates that military populism is distinct from other strategies of control that military regimes employ.

Sub Unit

• Related Groups / Southeast Asian Politics Group

Individual Presentations

• Myanmar’s Shifts in Governance: Too Little, Too Slowly - Petra Hendrickson, Centre College

• The Cooptation and Coercion of Religion in Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam - Adam Howe, Fairfield University

• Mechanisms of Durability of Authoritarian Regime Operating in Strong State - Eunji Won, Northern Illinois University

• The Causes of Military Populism: Analyzing Thai Military Regimes, 1958-2019 - Terence C. Lee, National University of Singapore

Chair

• Jeremy Menchik Boston University

Discussants

• Sebastian Dettman Singapore Management University

• Jiayun Elvin Ong University of British Columbia