History#12

20th century – rvolutions in SEA- largely peaceful

What kinds of democracy did ppl power revolutions produce?

Less repressive state, less developmental state, democracted permeated by corruption: new kinds
and opportunities for corruption

Votebuying is very prevalent in Indonesia- it’s one of the reasons why elections are so expensive in
Indonesia

Indonesia:the rise of oligarchs whose wealth partly depends on political connections

Kalla and Bakrie- bought Golkar, the previous ‘Communist party’ of Indonesia – a vehicle for oligarchy

A paradox: IN Indonesia authoritarian state succeded with pro- poor policies, unlike the democractic
state

Democratic Indonesia is not afraid of poor

Thailand is a dif story- Thaksin Shinawatra- an extremely paradoxical figure

A business who used to be a policemen and used his connections to sell computers and telephones

He got himself elected bc he was scared to lose his money (a pressure to liberalize the telecom
market)

Anti-civil service, anti- bureaucracy agenda

But Thaksinrealized that it would be actually useful to od sth for the poor rather than just buying
votes. Pro poor policies

Thailand didn’t have a proper healthcare system- Thaksin changed it into a universal system (only 1
euro per visit)

After 2014 when the generals seized power, they only expanded this system and added more
benefits for the poor

Then Thaksin had 2 proxy prime ministers, including his sister

Now he’s in exile in Montenegro

After all that, Thailand goes back to being a military dictatorship

SEA was largely immune from 2008 economic crisis (it had its own crises in the ‘90)

There are also large parts of EA which have never been democratic, such as Brunei, Vietnam or Laos

In general, democratic regression in SEA

Cambodia- was also briefly a democracy and turned authoritarian

Illeberl democracy (competitive authoritarianism) in the Philippines

Philippines- strong wealth inequality (because of landowning policy)