Transitions to Democracy in East and Southeast Asia

Transitions to Democracy in East and Southeast Asia
Edited by Kristina N. Gaerlan
TNI/IPD/FOCUS/ARENA, Quezon City, September 1999
ISBN: 971 8841 05 9

The essays in this volume are efforts to understand the processes of transition to democracy in five countries - Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand and South Korea. The common concerns running through the essays include the Asian financial crisis, the institutionalization of formal democratic processes such as a competitive party system, the struggle among political, economic and bureaucratic elites, the intervention or non-intervention of the middle class and popular classes in the political process, and the role of civil society actors.

Written from a southern and progressive activist perspective, these essays are important contributions to the 'political science' of democratic transitions. The book tackles many contested terms associated with democratization as well as the role of the state and the market in these challenging times. While analyzing what has been achieved by the five countries in their processes of democratization, the writers also explain why so much remains to be done in terms of deepening democracy.

Contents

• Foreword Asia's Diverse Democratic Transitions by Walden Bello
• The Political Economy of the Philippine Democratic Transition, by G. Luis Igaya
• A Tiger Changing Stripes: Post Development, Transitions and Democracy in South Korea, by Dorothy M. Guerrero
• Beyond Bread and Butter: The Demand for Democracy in South Korea, by Carmel V. Abao
• The Anwar Debacle and the Potential for Democratic Reforms in Malaysia, by Charles Santiago and M. Nadarajah
• A Break in the Cycle: Democratization in Thailand, by Regina S. Abesamis
• An Incomplete and Uncertain Transition: Indonesia after Suharto, by Mastinah Saleh and Joel Rocamora