Abstract
Southeast Asia defies any straightforward generalization. Even more so than in other world regions, the manifold political, economic, cultural, historical, and social differences among the countries in the region present political scientists with a quasi-natural laboratory. Levels of socioeconomic modernization, paths to state and nation-building, ethnic heterogeneity, colonial heritage, the structure of governing coalitions and elite formations, the shape and extent of interest and civil society organizations as well as institutional factors like type of government or electoral system all differ widely. This chapter provides an overview of Southeast Asia’s demographic, cultural and religious characteristics, outlines its precolonial, colonial, and postcolonial political development. As of early 2022, the region’s eleven countries fall into three broad regime categories: Cambodia, Singapore and—according to some studies—the Philippines are examples of “electoral authoritarianism”. The second group of “closed autocracies” that avoid de-facto (and, perhaps, de jure) competition in elections includes, Brunei, Laos, Vietnam, Myanmar, and Thailand. Laos and Vietnam are self-proclaimed communist party states. Brunei is a royal dictatorship, whereas Myanmar and Thailand are directly or indirectly ruled by the military. The third category of “electoral democracies”, includes Indonesia, Malaysia, Timor-Leste and, perhaps, the Philippines.
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Notes
- 1.
There is no generally accepted convention on spelling the term. In the UK, the term “South East Asia” or “south east Asia” is generally preferred, while in the USA, Southeast Asia is more commonly used. This textbook employs the spelling “Southeast Asia”, as it is the spelling countries in the region have adopted through the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).
- 2.
The name East Timor is still commonly used and was employed by Indonesia during its occupation. Since 2002, Timor-Leste is the country’s adopted and internationally recognized name.
- 3.
The country was known as Burma from 1948 until 1989, when the ruling military junta changed its name from Burma to Myanmar. Myanmar is the transliteration of the official state name from the original Birman. This book employs both names interchangeably.
- 4.
The others are China, North Korea, and Cuba (Dimitrov, 2013).
- 5.
The others are China, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, and Qatar (Grömping, 2015).
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Croissant, A. (2022). Government and Political Regimes in Southeast Asia: An Introduction. In: Comparative Politics of Southeast Asia. Springer Texts in Political Science and International Relations. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-05114-2_1
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