Southeast Asia in the 1990s: Authoritarianism, Democracy and Capitalism

Description

After the international success of Southeast Asia in the 1980s, three of Australia's best-known academics in the field have brought together a group of specialists on Southeast Asian politics to produce a completely new volume. Southeast Asia in the 1990s is a book of original studies which suggests the different political outcomes which flow from industrialisation and economic development. It evaluates the various academic approaches to these questions, and then turns to a series of case studies of Southeast Asian countries. These examine changes to, and tensions in, existing patterns of military rule, authoritarianism, and the progress of democracy as capitalism cuts a swathe through contemporary Southeast Asia. The book explains the pressures for reform which are being addressed by the Communist regime in Vietnam, and discusses why it is that the rich Sultanate of Brunei has been able to minimise such pressures. It examines the booming economies of Indonesia, Thailand, Singapore and Malaysia, and grapples with the difficulties of democratic reform in the face of the distinctive form of authoritarianism in those countries. Finally, the progress of democratic reform in the Philippines since the fall of the Marcos regime is considered. Southeast Asia in the 1990s provides invaluable, up-to-date and informed analysis of the very rapid political and economic changes taking place in the most dynamic region of the world.