Government and Political Regimes in Southeast Asia: An Introduction

Abstract

Southeast Asia as a region varies widely in its cultures, history, and political institutions. Due to this variety of regime types and the large variance of theoretically relevant explanatory factors, Southeast Asia presents political scientists with a “natural laboratory.” Levels of socioeconomic modernization, paths to state and nation-building, ethnic heterogeneity, colonial heritage, the structure of governing coalitions and elite formations, the shape and extent of interest and civil society organizations, as well as institutional factors like type of government or electoral system all differ widely. This chapter provides an overview of Southeast Asia’s demographic, cultural, and religious characteristics; outlines its precolonial, colonial, and postcolonial political development; and argues that the region’s eleven countries fall into three broad regime categories: Cambodia, Malaysia, Singapore, and—most recently—Myanmar are examples of “electoral authoritarianism.” Brunei Darussalam, Laos, Vietnam, and Thailand after 2014 are closed autocracies that lack multiparty elections. Finally, Indonesia, the Philippines, and Timor-Leste make up the region’s defective democracies, all stable but suffering from different constellations of problems, including intermittent mass mobilization, corruption, and incomplete stateness.