Thailand in 2016: Fade to Gray

Events in Thailand during 2016 were overshadowed by the death of long-reigning King Bhumibol Adulyadej on October 13, and the entire nation’s mourning. Despite the popular approval of a new constitution in August 2016, Thailand’s military regime showed no sign of relinquishing power during this time of considerable national anxiety

New Media, New Partisanship: Divided Virtual Politics In and Beyond Thailand

Since the military coup of September 19, 2006, Thailand has been characterized by deeply divided politics. This article examines the rise of partisan television channels closely associated with mass protest movements: ASTV, Asia Update, and Blue Sky. Leading figures of each protest movement became media celebrities in their own right: Thai politics became a form of reality TV, while popular entertainment became a mode of politics. As time went on, mediatized populism fueled use of social media such as Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube to promote partisan political stances. Each movement invoked its own competing notion of “the people,” offering highly selective and self-serving definitions of what constituted the public sphere and who was entitled to inhabit and, indeed, occupy this space. Partisan electronic media and new media have empowered citizens and deepened popular political engagement. But they have also stoked profound social division and discord, sometimes spilling over into violence. New media have helped generate dangerous forms of populism that undermine social cohesion and that demonize political adversaries

Thailand in 2016: Fade to Gray

Events in Thailand during 2016 were overshadowed by the death of long-reigning King Bhumibol Adulyadej on October 13, and the entire nation’s mourning. Despite the popular approval of a new constitution in August 2016, Thailand’s military regime showed no sign of relinquishing power during this time of considerable national anxiety

Cambodia in 2013 (No) Country for Old Men?

Cambodia in 2013 was dominated by close-fought national elections on July 28, only narrowly won by the ruling Cambodian People's Party after an unexpectedly strong showing by the opposition. Generational change was a major theme of the year, seen in the growing activism of youth and the deaths of several prominent figures

Branding Dissent: Nitirat, Thailand’s Enlightened Jurists

This article examines the political role of a group of academic lawyers based at Thammasat University who have been seeking to reform various aspects of the Thai legal and judicial system. The seven-member group started out by criticising the illegality of the 2006 coup. After the 2010 crackdown against redshirt protestors, the group named itself Nitirat and started to hold seminars, draft legal proposals, and campaign to amend various laws. Nitirat has repeatedly challenged the legal and constitutional underpinnings of three key elements of the Thai state: the judiciary, the military, and the monarchy. In doing so, the group has gained a mass following, drawn mainly from those sympathetic to the “redshirt” movement which broadly supports former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra. Informally led by scholar Worajet Pakeerat, Nitirat has created a popular branding which is reflected in huge audiences for public events, and the sales of souvenirs. The article aims to answer the following questions: How does Nitirat combine the roles of legal academic and political activist? How does it differ from the traditional mode of Thai public intellectuals? How significant is the Nitirat phenomenon

Moving beyond European and Latin American Typologies:The Peculiarities of AKP’s Populism in Turkey

Despite the growing literature on Turkish populism, there is yet no consensus on how best to categorise the Justice and Development Party (Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi or AKP). This article argues that this lack of consensus is due to a selective focus on the attributes of AKP’s populism. Indeed, when the party’s features are examined holistically, it does not neatly conform to the dominant typologies of populism, which were conceived mostly for European and Latin American examples. For historical reasons, AKP’s populist discourse defines “the people” versus “the elite” in civilisational terms and combines this with strategies of neo-liberalism, strong party organisation and grassroots mobilisation. This blend of populism distinguishes the AKP case from the exclusionary/inclusionary and classical/neo-liberal/radical typologies previously identified by the literature. However, the Bharatiya Janata Party in India and the Thai Rak Thai Party in Thailand have similar attributes to the AKP, drawing attention to the need to move beyond the existing ideological and strategic approaches to populism and towards a more comprehensive socio-cultural approach. The article contributes to the literature on populism by highlighting possible avenues for further research based on such a comprehensive understanding of populism based also on cases from Asia

Democratization and foreign policy in Southeast Asia: the case of the ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Myanmar Caucus

This is an Author's Accepted Manuscript of an article published in Cambridge Review of International Affairs Vol. 22, Iss. 3, 2009 as published in the CAMBRIDGE REVIEW OF INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS, 2009, copyright Taylor & Francis, available online at: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/09557570903104008

Surviving elections: election violence, incumbent victory, and post-election repercussions

It is often assumed that government-sponsored election violence increases the probability that incumbent leaders remain in power. Using cross-national data, we show that election violence increases the probability of incumbent victory, but can generate risky post-election dynamics. These differences in the consequences of election violence reflect changes in the strategic setting over the course of the election cycle. In the pre-election period, anti-incumbent collective action tends to be focused on the election itself, either through voter mobilization or opposition-organized election boycotts. In the post-election period, by contrast, when a favorable electoral outcome is no longer a possibility, anti-government collective action more often takes the form of mass political protest, which in turn can lead to costly repercussions for incumbent leaders

ASEAN's unchanged melody? The theory and practice of 'non-interference' in Southeast Asia

This is an Author's Accepted Manuscript of an article published as Jones, Lee. (2010). ASEAN's unchanged melody? The theory and practice of 'non-interference' in Southeast Asia. Pacific Review 23:4, 479-502 as published in PACIFIC REVIEW 2010 © Taylor & Francis, available online at: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/09512748.2010.49599