1

Introduction

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

9/4

Syllabus

Evaluation Criteria

Class Regulation

Introductory Lecture

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.

• Introduction of syllabus and regulations


• Students choose the week when they would like to do their individual presentations.


• Lecture: Introduction of concepts


• Other activities: games, simulation, debates.

2

The problems of democracy in Southeast Asia

9/11

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


• Presentation of the readings (for one or two students who chose the topic)


• Other activities: games, simulation, debates.

3

The persistence of authoritarian regimes

9/18

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


• Presentation of the readings (for one or two students who chose the topic)


• Other activities: games, simulation, debates.

4

The rise of populist leaders

9/25

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


• Presentation of the readings (for one or two students who chose the topic)


• Other activities: games, simulation, debates.

5

Grasping the “Asian Values”

10/2

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”


• Presentation of the readings (for one or two students who chose the topic)


• Other activities: games, simulation, debates.

6

Thailand: between populism, the monarchy and military-rule

10/9

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


• Presentation of the readings (for one or two students who chose the topic)


• Other activities: games, simulation, debates.

7

The Philippines: when democracy begets populism and violence

10/16

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.


• Presentation of the readings (for one or two students who chose the topic)


• Other activities: games, simulation, debates

8

MID TERM WEEK

10/23

NO CLASS

1,000-word essay submission

NO CLASS

Students submit their 1,000-word essay based on at least two theories that they have learnt in the class, and a relevant case study. The usage of other additional theories is encouraged. Best essays will be further revised for submission for publication at prominent policy platforms such as Fulcrum or EAF.

9

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

10/30

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.


• Presentation of the readings (for one or two students who chose the topic)


• Other activities: games, simulation, debates

10

FILM WEEK

11/6

WATCH A FILM

Title: GIE (2005), an award-winning film, based on the story of Soe Hok Gie (1942-1969), a young Chinese-Indonesian student activist who opposed the dictatorial regimes of presidents Soekarno and Soeharto, directed by Riri Riza.

• Student watch a film together about student activism in Indonesia.


• Discussion

11

Singapore: the pragmatism of an authoritarian capitalist state

11/13

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?


• Presentation of the readings (for one or two students who chose the topic)


• Other activities: games, simulation, debates

12

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

11/20

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.


• Presentation of the readings (for one or two students who chose the topic)


• Other activities: games, simulation, debates

13

Cambodia: undemocratic elections and dependence on China

11/27

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


• Presentation of the readings (for one or two students who chose the topic)


• Other activities: games, simulation, debates


• FINAL PRESENTATIONS batch 1 (for those who are ready)

14

Vietnam: authoritarian resilience

12/4

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


• Presentation of the readings (for one or two students who chose the topic)


• Other activities: games, simulation, debates


• FINAL PRESENTATIONS batch 2 (for those who are ready)

15

Myanmar: military-rule and a democratic roll-back

12/11

Tentative:

“Learning Together” method week: we will either receive guest students from NTNU led by Prof. Dr. Chang Pi Chun or we will visit them at NTNU as part of their course東南亞社會發展歷程

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


• Presentation of the readings (for one or two students who chose the topic)


• Other activities: games, simulation, debates


• FINAL PRESENTATIONS batch 3 (for those who are ready)

16

FINAL Presentation

12/18

Presentation Week

Student Final Presentations

FINAL PRESENTATIONS batch 4

FINAL PAPER DEADLINE is on 12/22