The Politics of Elections in Southeast Asia [Paperback]

This volume examines the countries in Southeast Asia that have conducted multi-party elections.Bringing together eleven studies, this volume examines the countries conducting multi-party elections since the l940s and l950s--Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand, Cambodia, Burma/Myanmar, and Singapore. It identifies the features of electoral politics in the region.Bringing together eleven studies, this volume examines the countries conducting multi-party elections since the l940s and l950s--Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand, Cambodia, Burma/Myanmar, and Singapore. It identifies the features of electoral politics in the region.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.List of tables; List of contributors; Acknowledgments; Introduction: the study of elections in the politics of Southeast Asia R. H. Taylor; 1. Elections and participation in three Southeast Asian countries Benedict R. Anderson; 2. A useful fiction: democratic legitimization in New Order Indonesia R. William Liddle; 3. Elections without representation: the Singapore experience under the PAP Garry Rodan; 4. Elections' Janus face: limitations and potential in Malaysia K. S. Jomo; 5. Malaysia: do elections make a differls,