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.
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