Calls by political leaders, social activists, and international policy and aid actors for accountability reforms to improve governance have never been more widespread. For some analysts, the unprecedented scale of these pressures reflects the functional imperatives and power of liberal and democratic institutions accompanying greater global economic integration. This book offers a different perspective, investigating the crucial role of contrasting ideologies informing accountability movements and mediating reform directions in Southeast Asia. It argues that the most influential ideologies are not those promoting the political authority of democratic sovereign people or of liberalism's freely contracting individuals. Instead, in both post-authoritarian and authoritarian regimes, it is ideologies advancing the political authority of moral guardians interpreting or ordaining correct modes of behaviour for public officials. Elites exploit such ideologies to deflect and contain pressures for democratic and liberal reforms to governance institutions. The book's case studies include human rights, political decentralization, anticorruption, and social accountability reform movements in Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam. These studies highlight how effective propagation of moral ideologies is boosted by the presence of powerful organizations, notably religious bodies, political parties, and broadcast media. Meanwhile, civil society organizations of comparable clout advancing liberalism or democracy are lacking. The theoretical framework of the book has wide applicability. In other regions, with contrasting histories and political economies, the nature and extent of organizations and social actors shaping accountability politics will differ, but the importance of these factors to which ideologies prevail to shape reform directions will not. Oxford Studies in Democratization is a series for scholars and students of comparative politics and related disciplines. Volumes concentrate on the comparative study of the democratization process that accompanied the decline and termination of the cold war. The geographical focus of the series is primarily Latin America, the Caribbean, Southern and Eastern Europe, and relevant experiences in Africa and Asia. The series editor is Laurence Whitehead, Official Fellow, Nuffield College, University of Oxford.
Show moreCalls by political leaders, social activists, and international policy and aid actors for accountability reforms to improve governance have never been more widespread. For some analysts, the unprecedented scale of these pressures reflects the functional imperatives and power of liberal and democratic institutions accompanying greater global economic integration. This book offers a different perspective, investigating the crucial role of contrasting ideologies informing accountability movements and mediating reform directions in Southeast Asia. It argues that the most influential ideologies are not those promoting the political authority of democratic sovereign people or of liberalism's freely contracting individuals. Instead, in both post-authoritarian and authoritarian regimes, it is ideologies advancing the political authority of moral guardians interpreting or ordaining correct modes of behaviour for public officials. Elites exploit such ideologies to deflect and contain pressures for democratic and liberal reforms to governance institutions. The book's case studies include human rights, political decentralization, anticorruption, and social accountability reform movements in Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam. These studies highlight how effective propagation of moral ideologies is boosted by the presence of powerful organizations, notably religious bodies, political parties, and broadcast media. Meanwhile, civil society organizations of comparable clout advancing liberalism or democracy are lacking. The theoretical framework of the book has wide applicability. In other regions, with contrasting histories and political economies, the nature and extent of organizations and social actors shaping accountability politics will differ, but the importance of these factors to which ideologies prevail to shape reform directions will not. Oxford Studies in Democratization is a series for scholars and students of comparative politics and related disciplines. Volumes concentrate on the comparative study of the democratization process that accompanied the decline and termination of the cold war. The geographical focus of the series is primarily Latin America, the Caribbean, Southern and Eastern Europe, and relevant experiences in Africa and Asia. The series editor is Laurence Whitehead, Official Fellow, Nuffield College, University of Oxford.
Show more1: Contrasting ideological rationales for accountability
2: Accountability coalitions in the Southeast Asian context
3: Political crisis and human rights accountability in Singapore
and Malaysia
4: Decentralization and accountability in post-socialist Cambodia
and Vietnam
5: Social accountability in the Philippines and Cambodia
6: State-based anticorruption agencies in Indonesia, the
Philippines, and Thailand
Conclusion
Garry Rodan is Professor of Politics and International Studies at
the Asia Research Centre, School of Management and Governance,
Murdoch University, Australia. He is also a Fellow of the Academy
of Social Sciences in Australia. He is the author of Transparency
and Authoritarian Rule in Southeast Asia (RoutledgeCurzon 2004) and
The Political Economy of Singapore's Industrialization (Macmillan,
1989). His edited and co-edited books include
Neoliberalism and Conflict in Asia After 9/11 (Routledge 2005), The
Political Economy of Southeast Asia (OUP, 1997, 2001, 2006),
Political Oppositions in Industrializing Asia (Routledge 1996),
Singapore Changes Guard (Longman
1993) and Southeast Asia in the 1990s: Authoritarianism, Capitalism
and Democracy (Allen & Unwin 1993). Caroline Hughes is Professor
Conflict Resolution and Peace in the Department of Peace Studies at
the University of Bradford in the UK. She was previously Director
of the Asia Research Centre at Murdoch University in Australia. Her
research has focused upon the political economy of regime change
and post-conflict statebuilding, in Cambodia and East Timor in
particular. She is
the author of Dependent Communities: Aid and Politics in Cambodia
and East Timor (Cornell SEAP, 2009) and The Political Economy of
Cambodia's Transition 1991-2001 (Routledge, 2003).
Rodan and Hughes book shows the importance of bringing politics
back into the accountability debate in Southeast Asia...theirs is
an argument that should be taken seriously by academics, civil
society organizations and development agencies alike when assessing
accountability reforms across the region.
*Michael Bühler, SOAS, University of London, ASEASUK News*
The Politics of Accountability is extremely impressive in its
scope, depth and sophistication. The empirical chapters are
extraordinarily rich, making extensive and compelling use of
interview data gathered during the years of fieldwork. The
framework significantly advances the "Murdoch school" of political
analysis by foregrounding ideology, which has hitherto been
relatively neglected. The overall argument is compelling, making a
seminal contribution to our understanding of how institutional
reforms can entrenth rather than undermine existing regimes ... The
Politics of Accountability is of interest not merely to students of
Southeast Asian politics, but also to those studying and to those
interested in the specific kinds of institutions that the book
covers.
*Lee Jones, Queen Mary, University of London, Journal of Social
Issues in Southeast Asia.*
this book constitutes a significant contribution and provides
intellectual and empirical rigour in arguing that accountability
reforms are a key political issue that enables us to understand the
limits of democratisation in this region of the world.
*Juanita Elias, Journal of Contemporary Asia*
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