
Sign up to save your podcasts
Or
The durability of strongmen leaders in Southeast Asia has puzzled many scholars and observers of the region. In the book Strategies of Authoritarian Survival and Dissensus in Southeast Asia: Weak Men versus Strongmen (Palgrave Macmillan, 2021), Sokphea Young offers a critical examination of the ways in which the ruling regime in Cambodia maintains political power, and how these strategies of regime maintenance extend to countries like Malaysia and Indonesia.
For Young, one way of understanding the longevity of strongman rule is by focusing on the cycle of interaction between government, business, and civil society. He finds that extractive economic institutions in Southeast Asia are essential in maintaining the power of regimes. While grassroots organisations use various tactics of resistance, Young argues that the outcomes of these protests, ultimately, are determined by the strength of neopatrimonial ties between business elites and the regime.
In this podcast, Young reflects on the book’s lessons for activist movements and civil society organisations in the region, how his background on international development and finance shaped his thinking on the book, the methodological opportunities available for researchers to conduct rigorous research on sensitive political matters, and the emerging developments in studying strongmen in Southeast Asia that are worth monitoring.
Dr Sokphea Young is currently an honorary research fellow at the University College London.
Like this interview? You may also be interested in:
Nicole Curato is a Professor of Sociology in the Centre for Deliberative Democracy and Global Governance at the University of Canberra. She co-hosts the New Books in Southeast Asia Studies channel.
This episode was produced in collaboration with Erron C. Medina of the Development Studies Program of Ateneo De Manila University.
Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/southeast-asian-studies
4.7
1919 ratings
The durability of strongmen leaders in Southeast Asia has puzzled many scholars and observers of the region. In the book Strategies of Authoritarian Survival and Dissensus in Southeast Asia: Weak Men versus Strongmen (Palgrave Macmillan, 2021), Sokphea Young offers a critical examination of the ways in which the ruling regime in Cambodia maintains political power, and how these strategies of regime maintenance extend to countries like Malaysia and Indonesia.
For Young, one way of understanding the longevity of strongman rule is by focusing on the cycle of interaction between government, business, and civil society. He finds that extractive economic institutions in Southeast Asia are essential in maintaining the power of regimes. While grassroots organisations use various tactics of resistance, Young argues that the outcomes of these protests, ultimately, are determined by the strength of neopatrimonial ties between business elites and the regime.
In this podcast, Young reflects on the book’s lessons for activist movements and civil society organisations in the region, how his background on international development and finance shaped his thinking on the book, the methodological opportunities available for researchers to conduct rigorous research on sensitive political matters, and the emerging developments in studying strongmen in Southeast Asia that are worth monitoring.
Dr Sokphea Young is currently an honorary research fellow at the University College London.
Like this interview? You may also be interested in:
Nicole Curato is a Professor of Sociology in the Centre for Deliberative Democracy and Global Governance at the University of Canberra. She co-hosts the New Books in Southeast Asia Studies channel.
This episode was produced in collaboration with Erron C. Medina of the Development Studies Program of Ateneo De Manila University.
Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/southeast-asian-studies
38,189 Listeners
209 Listeners
30,845 Listeners
26,163 Listeners
193 Listeners
162 Listeners
161 Listeners
23 Listeners
63 Listeners
23 Listeners
110 Listeners
290 Listeners
61 Listeners
25 Listeners
316 Listeners
591 Listeners
8 Listeners
103 Listeners
23 Listeners
137 Listeners
146 Listeners
64 Listeners
346 Listeners
422 Listeners
2,107 Listeners