Abstract
Liberal democracy was introduced to Cambodia in the early 1990s, but has failed to consolidate. Over the past two decades, the Cambodian People’s Party has dominated the political system, and yet its leaders remain insecure as they continue to consolidate power. The ruling party’s political successes can be explained in terms of its leadership’s ability to coopt and conspire with members of the economic and security elites, increasingly relying on the idea of national security as a strategy to justify its power consolidation. Global security politics also contributed to the development of Cambodia’s hegemonic-party system.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Belford, Aubrey and Chan Thul Prak. 2015. Chinese Influence in Cambodia Grows with Army School Aid. Reuters, April 2. Available at: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-cambodia-china-military-idUSKBN0MT0SW20150402.
Bell, Daniel, David Brown, Kanishka Jayasuriya, and David Martin Jones (eds.). 1995. Towards Illiberal Democracy in Pacific Asia. London: St. Martin’s Press.
Ben, Sokean. 2016. Hun Sen Ratchets Up Threats Against CNRP. The Phnom Penh Post, September 14.
Boyle, David and May Titthara. 2013. Render Unto the CPP. Phnom Penh Post, May 15. Available at: http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/render-unto-cpp.
Cambodian Information Centre. 2011. Cambodia’s Top Ten Tycoons. Available at: http://editorials.cambodia.org/2011/07/cambodias-top-ten-tycoons-wikileaks.html.
Case, William F. 1996. Can the ‘Halfway House’ Stand? Semi-Democracy and Elite Theory in Three Southeast Asian Countries. Comparative Politics 28 (4): 437–464.
Chambers, Paul. 2015. ‘Neo-Sultanistic Tendencies’: The Trajectory of Civil–Military Relations in Cambodia. Asian Security 11 (3): 179–205.
COMFREL. 2002. Report on the Commune Council Elections, March. Phnom Penh, Cambodia.
COMFREL. 2007. Final Assessment and Report on 2007 Commune Council Elections, April 1. Phnom Penh, Cambodia.
COMFREL. 2012. Final Assessment and Report on 2012 Commune Council Elections, October. Phnom Penh, Cambodia.
COMFREL. 2016. Democracy: Elections and Reform in Cambodia 2015, February. Phnom Penh, Cambodia.
Dara. Mech. 2015. Hun Sen New CPP President. Two New Vice-Presidents: The Cambodia Daily, June 22.
Global Witness. 2007. Cambodia’s Family Trees: Illegal Logging and the Stripping of Public assets. Available at: file:///C:/Users/User/Downloads/cambodias_family_trees_low_res.pdf.
Heder, Steve. 2012. Cambodia: Capitalist Transformation by Neither Liberal Democracy Nor Dictatorship. In Southeast Asian Affairs. Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies.
Human Rights Watch. 2015. World Report 2015: Cambodia. Available at: https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2015/country-chapters/Cambodia.
Hun, Sen. 2016. The Color Revolution and the Middle East Wars. YouTube Web site. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9riQdYvZMg0.
Hunt, Luke. 2015. Cambodia’s Well-Heeled Military Patrons. The Diplomat, August 10. Available at: http://thediplomat.com/2015/08/cambodias-well-heeled-military-patrons/.
Hunt, Luke. 2016. Cambodia’s Elite One Step Closer to International Court. The Diplomat, September 16. Available at: http://thediplomat.com/2016/09/cambodias-ruling-elite-one-step-closer-to-international-court/.
Huntington, Samuel. 1993. The Third Wave: Democratization in the Late Twentieth Century. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press.
Ichimura, S., and J. Morley. 1999. Introduction: The Varieties of Asia-Pacific Experience. In Driven by Growth: Political Change in the Asia-Pacific Region, ed. James Morley. New York: M. E. Sharpe.
Ikenberry, John. 2014. The Illusion of Geopolitics: The Enduring Power of the Liberal Order. Foreign Affairs 93 (3): 80–90.
International Trade Union Confederations. 2016. Cambodia: ITUC Deplores New Anti-Union Law, April 6. Available at: http://www.ituc-csi.org/cambodia-ituc-deplores-new-anti.
Kaldor, Mary. 2012. New and Old Wars: Organized Violence in a Global Era. Cambridge: Polity.
Kagan, Robert. 2017. Back into World War III. Foreign Policy, February 6. Available at: http://foreignpolicy.com/2017/02/06/backing-into-world-war-iii-russia-china-trump-obama/.
Karabell, Zachary. 2017. Forget Dow 20,000—the Boom Times Are Over: Is Democracy Next? Foreign Policy, January 26. Available at: http://foreignpolicy.com/2017/01/26/forget-dow-20k-the-boom-times-are-over-is-democracy-next/.
Kausikan, Bilahari. 1998. The ‘Asian Values’ Debate: A View from Singapore. In Democracy in East Asia, ed. Larry Diamond and Marc F. Plattner. Baltimore, MD: The Johns Hopkins University Press.
Mead, Walter Russell. 2014. The Return of Geopolitics: The Revenge of Revisionist Powers. Foreign Affairs 93 (3): 69–79.
Mech, Dara. 2016. Manet Touts Spending Boost for Armed Forces. The Phnom Penh Post, November 14.
Mech, Dara and Ananth Baliga. 2016. Woman charged for ‘insulting’ MP in Facebook Post. The Phnom Penh Post, June 27.
Mietzner, Marcus. 2011. Conflict and Leadership: The resurgent political role of the military in Southeast Asia. In The Political Resurgence of the Military in Southeast Asia: Conflict and Leadership, ed. Marcus Mietzner. New York: Routledge.
Nossel, Suzanne, 2015. Uganda’s Would-Be ‘President for Life’ Can Be Beaten. Foreign Policy, October 23. Available at: https://in.news.yahoo.com/uganda-president-life-beaten-195629689.html.
Parameswaran, Prashanth. 2015. Why is a Big Cambodia Military Delegation in China? The Diplomat, July 10. Available at: http://thediplomat.com/2015/07/why-is-a-big-cambodia-military-delegation-in-china/.
Parameswaran, Prashanth. 2016. Cambodia Wants China Warships: Navy Commander. The Diplomat, February 27. Available at: http://thediplomat.com/2016/02/cambodia-wants-china-warships-navy-commander/.
Pearson, Margaret M. 1997. China’s New Business Elite: The Political Consequences of Economic Reform. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
Peou, S. 1997. Conflict Neutralization in the Cambodia War: Turning the Battlefield into Ballot-Box. Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia: Oxford University Press.
Peou, S. 2011. Cambodia: A Hegemonic Party System in the Making. In Political Parties, Party Systems and Democratization in East Asia, ed. Liang Fook Lye and Wilhelm Hofmeister. Hackensack, NJ: World Scientific.
Peou, S. 2013. Mass Atrocities under the Khmer Rouge Reign of Terror. In State Violence in Asia, ed. N. Ganesan and Sung Chull Kim. Lexington, KY: University Press of Kentucky.
Peou, S. 2014. Party and Party System Institutionalization. In Party System Institutionalization in Asia: Democracies, Autocracies, and the Shadows of the Past. ed. Allen Hicken and Erik Martinez Kuhonta. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Peou, S. 2015. Peace Through Retribution or Reconciliation? Some Insights and Evidence From Southeast Asia. In Dimensions of Peace, ed. Oliver P. Richmond, Sandra Pogodda and Jasmin Ramovic, pp. 336–349. London: Palgrave Macmillan.
Peou, Sorpong. 2017a. Peace Through Democracy and Justice? Legacies and Lessons from Cambodia. The Asian Journal of Peacebuilding. Forthcoming.
Peou, Sorpong. 2017b. Human Security through Formal Trials? Some Evidence from Southeast Asia. RSIS Commentary. January 5. S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, Nanyang Technical University, Singapore. Appears in Eurasia Review: A Journal of Analysis and News. January 6. http://www.eurasiareview.com/06012017-human-security-through-formal-trials-some-evidence-from-southeast-asia-analysis/.
Radio Free Asia. 2013. Watchdog Says Cambodia Headed for One-Party State. Available at: http://www.rfa.org/english/news/cambodia/election-03122013193744.html. Accessed 12 March.
Radio Free Asia. 2014. Cambodia’s Parliament Passes Law ‘Threatening Judicial Independence’. Available at: http://www.rfa.org/english/news/cambodia/laws-05232014201001.html. Accessed 23 May.
Roy, Denny. 1994. Singapore, China, and the ‘Soft Authoritarian’ Challenge. Asian Survey 34 (3): 231–242.
Sidel, John T. 2008. Social Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy Revisited: Colonial State and Chinese Immigrant in the Making of Modern Southeast Asia. Comparative Politics 40 (2): 127–147.
Sok, Say. 2014. Limited State and Strong Social Forces: Fishing lot Management in Cambodia. Journal of Southeast Asian Studies 45 (2): 174–193.
Vong, Sokheng and Sokchea Meas. 2015. Ruling Party Defends Ties to Military and Police. The Phnom Penh Post, February 9.
Woo-Cumings, Meredith. 1994. The ‘New Authoritarianism’ in East Asia. Current History 93 (587): 413–416.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2018 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Peou, S. (2018). The Politics of Survival in Cambodia: National Security for Undemocratic Control. In: Howe, B. (eds) National Security, Statecentricity, and Governance in East Asia. Security, Development and Human Rights in East Asia. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-58974-9_5
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-58974-9_5
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-58973-2
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-58974-9
eBook Packages: Political Science and International StudiesPolitical Science and International Studies (R0)