Prof John Sidel

This course is available on the MSc in Comparative Politics, MSc in Conflict Studies, MSc in Development Management, MSc in Development Studies, MSc in Global Politics and MSc in Social Anthropology (Religion in the Contemporary World). This course is not available as an outside option.

This course is capped at 1 group.

This course focuses on the diverse processes of globalization and democratization observed in Southeast Asia over the past few decades. Special attention is paid to democracy in Indonesia and the Philippines, regression from democracy to military rule in Thailand and  Myanmar, and 'creeping pluralism' and 'creeping constitutionalism' in Vietnam. The course examines important trends and developments accompanying globalization and democratization in the region - in government-business relations, in local politics, in civil society, in religious practices, in inter-communal relations, and in the organization and use of violence in politics. Throughout the course, the countries examined are treated as cases suitable for analysis and comparison in the light of the broader Comparative Politics and Global Politics literatures on globalization and democratization.

The course begins by situating globalization and democratization in Southeast Asia against a comparative historical and sociological backdrop, paying close attention to the variegated patterns of class, state, and religious formation in the region. The course compares patterns of globalization and democratization across the Philippines, Thailand, Indonesia, Myanmar, and Vietnam. Lectures, readings, and seminar discussions then turn to key trends accompanying globalization and democratization in Southeast Asia. The trends examined include populist challenges to established power structures; campaigns against 'corruption' and in support of 'the rule of law' and 'good governance'; social movements and struggles for popular empowerment; the democratization of religious practices and institutions; religious violence, and separatist mobilization. These trends are treated through comparative analysis of different cases within Southeast Asia and in the light of relevant theoretical literatures drawn from Comparative Politics and Global Politics.

This course is delivered through a combination of lectures and seminars totalling a minimum of 25 hours in the Michaelmas Term.

There will be a reading week in Week 6 of the MT.

One non-assessed 1500-word essay.

Teri L. Caraway and Michele Ford, Labor and Politics in Indonesia (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2020); Nicole Curato (ed.), A Duterte Reader: Critical Essays on Rodrigo Duterte's Early Presidency (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Southeast Asia Program, 2017); Renaud Egreteau, Caretaking Democratization: The Military and Political Change in Myanmar (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2016); Federico Ferrara, The Political Development of Modern Thailand (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2015); Michele Ford and Thomas B. Pepinsky (eds.), Beyond Oligarchy: Wealth, Power, and Contemporary Indonesian Politics (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Southeast Asia Program 2014); Benedict J. Tria Kervliet, Speaking Out in Vietnam: Public Political Criticism in a Communist Party-Ruled Nation (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2019); Wataru Kusaka, Moral Politics in the Philippines: Inequality, Democracy, and the Urban Poor (Singapore: NUS Press, 2017); Michael J. Montesano, Terence Chong, and Mark Heng (eds.), After the Coup: The National Council for Peace and Order Era and the Future of Thailand (Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 2018);  Thomas Power and Eve Warburton (eds.), Democracy in Indonesia: From Stagnation to Regression? (Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 2020); Francis Wade, Myanmar’s Enemy Within: Buddhist Violence and the Making of a Muslim ‘Other’ (London: Zed Books, 2017).

Essay (50%, 3000 words).
Online assessment (50%) in January.

Online assessment duration: 7 days in the January exam period (estimated amount of effort: 2 hours).