China’s Foreign Investment and Assistance: Implications for Cambodia’s Development and Democratization

With a strong economy and newly acquired confidence following three decades of rapid economic expansion, China has pursued an outward looking policy based upon foreign direct investment, development assistance and trade targeting particularly the developing world. Such expansion has drawn concerns over its impact on human rights, democratization and the environment. This paper assesses these concerns by examining Sino-Cambodia relations over the past sixteen years. It concludes that while trade, development assistance, and investment have had positive effects on Cambodia’s economic development, concerns that these engagements have derailed deeper democratization in Cambodia are not deterministic. Cambodia’s authoritarian trajectory is less a product of China’s engagement and more of the Cambodian elites’ defiance of Western efforts at democratic promotion and belief in state developmentalism—economic prosperity with tight political control

Navigating a river by its bends. A study on transnational social networks as resources for the transformation of Cambodia

This article explores in what ways first generation Cambodian French and Cambodian American returnees create and employ the social capital available in their transnational social networks upon their return to Cambodia. The triangular interdependence between the returnees, their overseas immigrant communities and homeland society is taken as a starting point. The central argument is that Cambodian French and Cambodian American returnees build different relationships to Cambodia due to: (1) the influence of their immigrant communities in the countries of resettlement; and (2) the contexts of their exit from Cambodia. Regarding debates on the contribution of returnees to an emergent nation, findings in this multisited casestudy bring forward that ideas of return held by the three parties involved may force remigrants into transnationalism in both host and home countries. Findings also demonstrate that social capital may be seen as a resource or a restraint in the lives of returnees

Democratization without consolidation : the case of Cambodia, 1993-2004

Includes bibliographical references (pages [306]-329).Over the last several decades, democracy has emerged in many places throughout the world. This study contributes theoretically and comparatively to discussions of this process by offering empirical analysis of a case of internationally imposed democracy. It finds that in the Cambodian case, international intervention successfully imposed electoral democracy despite existing social, economic and political conditions. However, those existing conditions played a crucial role in obstructing the second transition—a transition from electoral democracy to a liberal democracy. This case study is important to our understanding of other cases caught in the “grey area” between authoritarianism and true liberal democracy, characterized by the rule of law and established political institutions to protect human rights and social justice. This study examines the lack of democratic consolidation in Cambodia between the general elections of 1993 and 2004. Democratic consolidation is explored through analysis of the workings of the Cambodian judicial system, including discussion of how the judiciary interacts with Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) whose goals include promoting democracy and the rule of law. This study explains the lack of democratic consolidation through structural analysis juxtaposing state and society relations. Based on a year of research conducting interviews with NGO and government actors, this study shows that ten years after the introduction of democracy in 1993, the state continues to be governed by patronage networks sustained by corruption. Through patronage politics, elites have perpetuated themselves in power by undermining and distorting the rule of law and constitutionally established political institutions. Simultaneously and as a part of the broader democratic transition, civil society has begun to emerge. Before the 1991 Paris Peace Agreement (PPA), the public sphere was censured by the state, and the discourse of civil society did not exist. Despite the rapid growth of NGOs since the PPA, Cambodian civil society organizations have faced internal and external constraints. Consequently, they have not yet established themselves as a meaningful countervailing force to the state. In the absence of a meaningful societal pressure, political elites have not been willing to transform the political system. The analytical juxtaposition of state and society contributes to the discussion of the role of NGOs in democratic consolidation. This study finds that NGOs must possess certain characteristics and strategies before they can play the role of catalyst in democracy promotion. To be effective as a countervailing force to the state, NGOs need to be democratic, financially independent, and membership based, and they need to create linkages to progressive social and political organizations.Ph.D. (Doctor of Philosophy

Is the trial of 'Duch' a catalyst for change in Cambodia's courts?

For more about the East-West Center, see http://www.eastwestcenter.org/At his trial under an international hybrid tribunal, the notorious member of the Khmer Rouge regime Kaing Guek Eav, known as "Duch," admitted to being responsible for the deaths of more than 12,000 people between 1975 and 1979. This admission and expected conviction (the only real question left is the level of punishment) signify a symbolic victory for the Cambodian people. It is important for Cambodia's healing that the people know their history and believe that there can be justice. The coverage of Duch's trial and associated community outreach have engaged the public in the process and have increased education about the country's recent past. But whether the hopes that the hybrid tribunal in which his trial was conducted may serve as a model for a more transparent system of justice--as opposed to the endemic system of patronage and corruption that is the norm for Cambodia's judiciary and law enforcement--has yet to be seen. For these hopes to be realized, the educational outreach and the pursuit of judicial reform must continue

International Political science Review. Special issue: The quality of Democracy in Asia Pacific

This issue of IPSR is a departure from our recent practice of providing a yearly issue devoted to reviews of recent books on significant topics in political science. We have invited Leonardo Morlino, Bj\uf6rn Dressel and Riccardo Pelizzo to be guest editors of a special issue devoted to analyzing the quality of democracy in East Asia. As readers of IPSR know, while the analysis of transitions to and consolidation of democracy continues to be of great current theoretical and political relevance (as witness, the Arab Spring), political scientists have broadened our focus to considering the extent or quality of democracy. Interest in the topic was prompted by the discovery that many authoritarian regimes have adopted the trappings and to some extent the reality of democratic institutions while retaining important elements of authoritarianism. In brief, in many cases what has been consolidated is not democracy but a hybrid regime. Leonardo Morlino, one of the guest editors of the special issue, was among the early contributors to our understanding of this question \u2014 at the same time that he has sought to understand how to tip the balance of hybrid regimes toward more democracy. The editors of IPSR decided to provide an opportunity for Leonardo and his colleagues to apply the framework that he had developed to analyzing the quality of democracy among a cluster of East Asian regimes. This one-off special issue is the result. We would like to repeat two important announcements made in past issues of IPSR. First, Yvonne Galligan is stepping down as co-editor of IPSR and IPSA, IPSR\u2019s sponsoring organization, has organized a search for her replacement. The new editor will be expected to continue contributing to the journal\u2019s efforts to improve the quality of scholarship that it publishes and the breadth of its audience throughout the world. IPSA\u2019s Publications Sub-committee, chaired by Mikhael Ilyin, will be interested in knowing what plans the new editor has for building on this success and further raising the profile and standing of the journal during her/his term of office

Chinese Linkage, Leverage, and Cambodia’s Transition to Hegemonic Authoritarianism

This article considers authoritarian linkage politics and its relationship to regime stability. Between 2012 and 2018, Cambodia experienced its worst political crisis in a decade. During this period, China’s economic assistance, diplomatic backing and military exchanges have cemented it as the ruling Cambodian People’s Party’s (CPP) most important foreign partner. This article’s findings support the linkage thesis: that ties between authoritarian regimes enhance their survival in moments of crisis. The article provides evidence for the specific forms of linkages that proved vital to the CPP during a transition from competitive to hegemonic authoritarianism. It shows that alongside more familiar linkage ties, the CPP also drew on more diffuse types of authoritarian cooperation and emulation, while Chinese discourses on non-interference and the right to develop provided an authoritarian nexus supporting CPP legitimation narratives in defiance of challengers. The article reflects on Cambodia’s variant of hegemonic authoritarianism in light of these observations. Finally, the argument draws attention to leverage exercised on Cambodia by China as a consequence of these linkages, which have been beneficial to China’s strategic and military interests in Southeast Asia. In the current moment of autocratization and great power competition globally, this has implications for research beyond Cambodia