Richard Robison

Richard Higgott

The articles in this edited collection, first published in 1985, consider the competing theories of the nature of development and underdevelopment in Southeast Asia. Each chapter challenges the academic orthodoxies and dominant traditions of Southeast Asian studies, particularly in relation to orientalist history, behaviourist political science and development economics. Overall, the contributions offer an alternative framework for analysis, which considers the structural changes to the political economy of Southeast Asia, as well as the relationship between the state, economy and class at a domestic level. This is a fascinating collection, of value to students and academics with an interest in Southeast Asian politics, economics and history.

Essays in the Political Economy of Structural Change

Southeast Asia (Routledge Revivals)

Wil Hout

This book is about the way ‘governance’ has become the new orthodoxy of development, following earlier failed attempts at building working market economies through policy reform in developing countries. Considering how its proponents define ‘good governance’, the contributors to this volume assess why programmes of governance building in developing countries have proven to be no less problematic than the previous agendas of market reform. Governance and the Depoliticisation of Development challenges ideas that deeper political and social problems of development may be addressed by institutional or governance fixes. It examines the principles and prescriptions of ‘good’ governance as part of larger conflicts over power and its distribution. The volume provides: a series of case studies from Latin America, Middle East and Asia a link to current theorising on neoliberalism and the post-Washington Consensus a focus on governance at the global and national levels from a comparative perspective The collection will be essential reading for researchers and scholars of international political economy, governance studies and political science.

Governance and the Depoliticisation of Development

David Goodman

This is the first volume in the The New Rich in Asia series which examines the economic, social and political construction of the 'new rich' in the countries and territories of East and South East Asia, as well as their impact internationally. From a western perspective the rise of the emergent business and professional class may seem very familiar. However, it is far from clear that those newly enriched by the processes of modernization in East and South East Asia are readily comparable with the middle classes of the West. For example, civil and human rights seem to play a different role in social, political and economic change, and the State is clearly more central as an agent of economic development. This volume is the essential introduction to the series, and identifies the 'new rich' phenomenon in Indonesia, Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, Korea, China, Hong Kong and Taiwan. The contributors demonstrate that the key to understanding the 'new rich' is to realise that they are neither a single category or class, but in each setting a series of different socio-political groups who have a common inheritance from the process of rapid economic growth.

Mobile Phones, McDonald's and Middle Class Revolution

The New Rich in Asia

Vedi R. Hadiz

Reorganising Power in Indonesia is a new and distinctive analysis of the dramatic fall of Soeharto, the last of the great Cold War capitalist dictators, and of the struggles that reshape power and wealth in Indonesia. The dramatic events of the past two decades are understood essentially in terms of the rise of a complex politico-business oligarchy and the ongoing reorganisation of its power through successive crises, colonising and expropriating new political and market institutions. With the collapse of authoritarian rule, the authors propose that the way was left open for this oligarchy to reconstitute its power within society and the institutions of newly democratic Indonesia.

The Politics of Oligarchy in an Age of Markets

Reorganising Power in Indonesia

This Handbook provides a comprehensive analysis of the major themes that have defined the politics of Southeast Asia. It provides a comprehensive and cutting-edge examination of this important subject. The introductory chapter provides an overview of the theoretical and ideological themes that have dominated the study of the region's politics and presents the different ways the complex politics of the region have been understood. The contributions by leading scholars in the field cover a range of broad questions about the dynamics of politics. The Handbook analyses how the dominant political and social coalitions of the region were forged in the Cold War era, and assesses the complex processes of transition towards various forms of democratic politics. How institutions and systems of governance are being forged in an increasingly global environment is discussed and whether civil society in Southeast Asia has really evolved as an independent sphere of social and political activity. The Handbook examines how national governments are dealing with growing tensions within the region as matters such as labour, human rights and the environment spill beyond national boundaries, and how they are establishing a place in the new global framework. By engaging the Southeast Asian experience more firmly with larger debates about modern political systems, the Handbook is an essential reference tool for students and scholars of Political Science and Southeast Asian studies.

Routledge Handbook of Southeast Asian Politics

Professor School of Politics and International Studies Richard Robison

Hyuk-Rae Kim

Mark Beeson

Kanishka Jayasuriya

This book is a challenging volume by distinguished, leading scholars of East Asian political economy; it provides a distinct alternative to simplistic accounts of the Asian crisis which generally swing between an emphasis on convergence imposed by global economic forces, and the resurrection of the special patterns of East Asian economic governance. The authors argue that global forces and domestic structures are engendering new forms of economic and political regulation in East Asia. While these signal the death knell of the developmental state, this in itself does not presuppose a convergence towards a standard model of global capitalism. The arguments in this book will contribute significantly to the construction of a new research agenda for comparative political economy at the dawn of a new century. Politics and Markets in the Wake of the Asian Crisis covers a range of East Asian countries including the People's Republic of China, South Korea, Indonesia, Thailand and Malaysia. All the studies are linked together by a common endeavour to explore the dynamic interaction between global economic forces and domestic structures. The book is at the cutting edge of the study of East Asian political economy, and is distinguished by the attention it pays to the regional and international context of the crisis. It also contains theoretically sophisticated analyses of organisations such as APEC and the IMF.

Richard Robison

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