1

Introduction

Syllabus

Evaluation Criteria

Class Regulations

Introduction of syllabus and regulations

Students choose the 6 (six) weeks in which they want to submit their individual essays.

No Homework

2

Exploring democracy as a concept as opposed to “Hybrid Regime”

Required

Levitsky, Steven, and Lucan A. Way, 2010. Competitive authoritarianism: Hybrid regimes after the Cold War. Cambridge University Press. [Introduction chapter]

Diamond, Larry, 2002. "Elections without democracy: Thinking about hybrid regimes." Journal of democracy 13.2: 21-35.

Additional

Diamond, Larry, 2008. "The democratic rollback: the resurgence of the predatory state." Foreign Affairs 86: 36-48.

• Lecture: Introduction of concepts


• Essay (only for those who chose to submit it)


• Presentation of the readings (only for one or two students who chose to do it)


• Other activities: games, simulation, debates.

3

The problems of democracy in Southeast Asia

Required

Dan Slater & Joseph Wong, 2013. “The Strength to Concede: Ruling Parties and Democratization in Developmental Asia” Perspectives on Politics, Vol. 11, Vol.3, pp. 717-733.

Dan Slater, 2008. “Democracy and Dictatorship Do Not Float Freely” in Southeast Asia in Political Science: Theory, Region and Qualitative Analysis, edited by Erik Martinez Kuhonta, Dan Slater, and Tuong Vu, pp. 55-79.

Additional

Morlino, Leonardo, Björn Dressel, and Riccardo Pelizzo, 2011. “The quality of democracy in Asia-Pacific: Issues and findings.” International Political Science Review 32.5: 491-511.

• Lecture: Introduction on the problems of democracy in Southeast Asia


• Essay (only for those who chose to submit it)


• Presentation of the readings (only for one or two students who chose to do it)


• Other activities: games, simulation, debates.

4

The persistence of authoritarian regimes

Required

Levitsky, Steven, and Lucan A. Way, 2002. "Elections without democracy: The rise of competitive authoritarianism." Journal of democracy 13.2: 51-65.

Levitsky, S, and Lucan A. Way, 2006. “Linkage versus Leverage. Rethinking the International Dimension of Regime Change.” Comparative Politics, vol. 38, no. 4, 2006, pp. 379–400. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/20434008

Additional

Morgenbesser, Lee, and Thomas B. Pepinsky. 2019.  "Elections as causes of democratization: Southeast Asia in comparative perspective." Comparative Political Studies 52.1: 3-35.

• Lecture: authoritarianism in Southeast Asia


• Essay (only for those who chose to submit it)


• Presentation of the readings (only for one or two students who chose to do it)


• Other activities: games, simulation, debates.

5

The rise of populist leaders

Required

Aspinall, Edward, 2015. "Oligarchic populism: Prabowo Subianto's challenge to Indonesian democracy." Indonesia 99 (2015): 1-28.

Curato, Nicole, 2017. "Flirting with authoritarian fantasies? Rodrigo Duterte and the new terms of Philippine populism." Journal of Contemporary Asia 47.1: 142-153.

Additional

Hadiz, Vedi R., and Angelos Chryssogelos, 2017. "Populism in world politics: A comparative cross-regional perspective." International Political Science Review 38.4: 399-411.

Phongpaichit, Pasuk, and Chris Baker, 2008. "Thaksin's populism." Journal of Contemporary Asia 38.1: 62-83.

• Lecture: populism in Southeast Asia and why this is a democratic challenge


• Essay (only for those who chose to submit it)


• Presentation of the readings (only for one or two students who chose to do it)


• Other activities: games, simulation, debates.

6

Grasping the “Asian Values”

Required

Barr, Michael D, 2000. "Lee Kuan Yew and the “Asian values” debate." Asian Studies Review 24.3: 309-334.

Subramaniam, Surain., 2000. "The Asian values debate: Implications for the spread of liberal democracy." Asian Affairs: An American Review 27.1 (2000): 19-35.

Additional

Thompson, Mark R, 2004. "Pacific Asia after ‘Asian values’: authoritarianism, democracy, and ‘good governance’." Third World Quarterly 25.6: 1079-1095.

Thompson, Mark R, 2001.  "Whatever happened to" Asian values"?" Journal of Democracy 12.4: 154-165.

• Lecture: the conundrum of “Asian Values”


• Essay (only for those who chose to submit it)


• Presentation of the readings (only for one or two students who chose to do it)


• Other activities: games, simulation, debates.

7

Thailand: between populism, the monarchy and military-rule

Required

McCargo, Duncan, 2019. "Southeast Asia's Troubling Elections: Democratic Demolition in Thailand." Journal of Democracy 30.4: 119-133.

Schaffar, Wolfram, 2018. "The iron silk road and the iron fist: Making sense of the military coup d’état in Thailand." Austrian Journal of South-East Asian Studies 11.1: 35-52.

Additional

Sombatpoonsiri, Janjira, 2017. "The 2014 military coup in Thailand: Implications for political conflicts and resolution." Asian Journal of Peacebuilding 5.

Winichakul, Thongchai, 2016. "Thailand's hyper-royalism: Its past success and present predicament." ISEAS Trends in Southeast Asia 7.

• Lecture: democratic challenges and democratic hopes in Thailand


• Essay (only for those who chose to submit it)


• Presentation of the readings (only for one or two students who chose to do it)


• Other activities: games, simulation, debates.

8

The Philippines: when democracy begets populism and violence

Required

Heydarian, Richard Javad. The rise of Duterte: A populist revolt against elite democracy. Springer, 2017.

Noble, Lela Garner, 1986. "Politics in the Marcos era." In John Bresnan, ed. Crisis in the Philippines: The Marcos era and beyond, Princeton University Press. 70-113.

Additional

Ordoñez, Matthew David, and Anthony Lawrence Borja, 2018. "Philippine liberal democracy under siege: The ideological underpinnings of Duterte’s populist challenge." Philippine Political Science Journal 39.2: 139-153.

Thompson, Mark R, 2016. "Bloodied democracy: Duterte and the death of liberal reformism in the Philippines." Journal of Current Southeast Asian Affairs 35.3: 39-68.

• Lecture: The Philippines: the oldest democracy in Southeast Asia, and its challenges.


• Essay (only for those who chose to submit it)


• Presentation of the readings (only for one or two students who chose to do it)


• Other activities: games, simulation, debates

9

Mid-term Week

No class

Writing at home

10

Indonesia: the rise of pragmatic authoritarianism, religious populism and identity-politics

Required

Fukuoka, Yuki, 2012. "Politics, business and the state in post-Soeharto Indonesia." Contemporary Southeast Asia: A Journal of International and Strategic Affairs 34.1: 80-100.Hadiz, Vedi R, 2018. "Imagine all the people? Mobilising Islamic populism for right-wing politics in Indonesia." Journal of Contemporary Asia 48.4: 566-583.

Honna, Jun. 2019. "Civil-Military Relations in an Emerging State: A Perspective from Indonesia’s Democratic Consolidation." Emerging states at crossroads. Springer, Singapore, 255-270.

Additional

Pisani, Elizabeth, and Michael Buehler, 2017. "Why do Indonesian politicians promote shari’a laws? An analytic framework for Muslim-majority democracies." Third World Quarterly 38.3: 734-752.

Simandjuntak, Deasy “Challenges to Indonesia’s Democracy: Beyond Religious Polarization”, Asia Pacific Research Forum No. 69 (2021.06), pp.9-47《亞太研究論壇》第 69期 (2021.06), pp. 9–47.

• Lecture: Indonesia: the largest Southeast Asian nation and its challenges.


• Essay (only for those who chose to submit it)


• Presentation of the readings (only for one or two students who chose to do it)


• Other activities: games, simulation, debates

11

Malaysia: a semi-democracy facing a democratic roll-back

Required

Ostwald, Kai, and Steven Oliver. 2020. "Four arenas: Malaysia’s 2018 election, reform, and democratization." Democratization 27.4: 662-680.

Dettman, Sebastian. 2020. "Authoritarian innovations and democratic reform in the “New Malaysia”." Democratization 27.6: 1037-1052.

Additional

Weiss, Meredith, 2020.  "The Limits of “Populism”: How Malaysia Misses the Mark and Why That Matters." Journal of Current Southeast Asian Affairs 39.2: 207-226.

Weiss, Meredith, 2005. "Prickly ambivalence: State, society and semidemocracy in Malaysia." Commonwealth & Comparative Politics 43.1: 61-81.

• Lecture: Malaysia, affirmative policies, and other democratic challenges.


• Essay (only for those who chose to submit it)


• Presentation of the readings (only for one or two students who chose to do it)


• Other activities: games, simulation, debates

12

Singapore: the pragmatism of an authoritarian capitalist state

Required

Chua Beng Huat, 2010. "The cultural logic of a capitalist single-party state, Singapore." Postcolonial Studies 13.4: 335-350.

Tan, Kenneth Paul, 2012. "The ideology of pragmatism: Neo-liberal globalisation and political authoritarianism in Singapore." Journal of Contemporary Asia 42.1: 67-92

Additional

Ortmann, Stephan, and Mark R. Thompson, 2014. "China's obsession with Singapore: learning authoritarian modernity." The Pacific Review 27.3: 433-455.

• Lecture: Singapore: how democratic is Southeast Asia’s richest country?


• Essay (only for those who chose to submit it)


• Presentation of the readings (only for one or two students who chose to do it)


• Other activities: games, simulation, debates

13

Cambodia: undemocratic elections and dependence on China

Po, Sovinda & Kearrin Sims, 2022. The Myth of Non-interference: Chinese Foreign Policy in Cambodia, Asian Studies Review, 46:1, 36-54, DOI: 10.1080/10357823.2021.1887813

Ngoun, Kimly, 2022. Adaptive Authoritarian Resilience: Cambodian Strongman’s Quest for Legitimacy, Journal of Contemporary Asia, 52:1, 23-44, DOI: 10.1080/00472336.2020.1832241

• Lecture: Cambodia and China’s relations


• Essay (only for those who chose to submit it)


• Presentation of the readings (only for one or two students who chose to do it)


• Other activities: games, simulation, debates

14

Vietnam: authoritarian resilience

Giang, Nguyen Khac. "Succession Politics and Authoritarian Resilience in Vietnam." Southeast Asian Affairs (2020): 411-426.

Thanh Hai, Do. "Vietnam and China: ideological bedfellows, strange dreamers." Journal of Contemporary East Asia Studies 10.2 (2021): 162-182

• Lecture: Vietnam: navigating socialism and state-led capitalism


• Essay (only for those who chose to submit it)


• Presentation of the readings (only for one or two students who chose to do it)


• Other activities: games, simulation, debates

15

Myanmar: military-rule and a democratic roll-back

Required

Crouch, Melissa, 2021. "States of Legal Denial: How the State in Myanmar Uses Law to Exclude the Rohingya." Journal of Contemporary Asia 51.1: 87-110.

Stokke, Kristian, and Soe Myint Aung, 2019. "Transition to democracy or hybrid regime? The dynamics and outcomes of democratization in Myanmar." The European Journal of Development Research: 1-20

Additional

Egreteau, Renaud, 2021. Why veterans lose: the decline of retired military officers in Myanmar’s post-junta elections, Third World Quarterly, 42:11, 2611-2628, DOI: 10.1080/01436597.2021.1976060

• Lecture: Myanmar’s military and its authoritarian persistence


• Essay (only for those who chose to submit it)


• Presentation of the readings (only for one or two students who chose to do it)


• Other activities: games, simulation, debates

16

Film Week

Film Week

WATCH FILM:

The Lady (2011) about Aung San Suu Kyi of Myanmar

17

Presentation Week

Presentation Week

Student Final Presentations

18

Final Paper Week

Final Paper Week

No class

Submission of Final Papers

No Homework