LECTURE SERIES | Democratization in Southeast Asia - Opportunities and Challenges (Winter Term 2011/2012)

The Colloquium Politicum will organize a lecture series on

Democratization in Southeast Asia – Opportunities and Challenges

The lecture series analyzes the trajectories of political and socioeconomic development in Southeast Asia. Most observers agree that the region has been a great economic success story. Even the Asian financial crisis of 1997/1998 with its disastrous consequences interrupted Southeast Asia’s unprecedented economic growth only briefly. In the meantime, Indonesia, the most badly hit economy in the region, has also returned to robust economic growth. Much less persuasive is the region’s political development. Rapid economic growth has not been paralleled by democratization. Today democracy indices rate only Indonesia as a full-fledged democracy. The Philippines and Thailand, once Southeast Asia’s democratic frontrunners, have receded to hybrid political systems with serious democratic deficits. All other political systems of the region are either of a “soft authoritarian” or fully autocratic type of various shades. The lecture series concentrates on the process of democratic consolidation and the obstacles it faces in the region’s three democratic polities: Indonesia, Thailand and the Philippines. Noted Southeast Asianists examine critical factors of democratization in these countries: Constitutional and institutional changes, the role of political elites, local government performance, civil-military relations and foreign policymaking.

Lecture schedule 

1. September 2011 / 4 pm / Room 1015, KG I 

Professor Dr. Andrew McIntyre

(Dean, College of Asia & Pacific, Australian National University, Canberra)

Making sense of developing development trajectories: Thailand and Indonesia

3. November 2011 / 8 pm / Room 1199, KG I

Dr. Markus Mietzner

(College of Asia and the Pacific Australian National University, Guest Fellow Southeast Asian Studies Freiburg)

Is Indonesian democracy in crisis? Some reflections on the post-Suharto polity

17. November 2011 / 4 pm  /  FRIAS, Albertstraße 19, Seminarraum

Professor Dr. Jürgen Rüland

(Universität Freiburg, Lehrstuhl für Internationale Politik, Sprecher Southeast Asian Studies Programme Freiburg, FRIAS Fellow 01.10.10-30.09.11)

Constructing regionalism domestically: Local actors and foreign policymaking in newly democratized Indonesia

11. Januar 2012 / 6 pm / Room 3043, KG III

Ambassador Djoko Susilo

(Botschafter Indonesiens in der Schweiz)

Strengthening political parties to support the democratization process in Indonesia

19. Januar 2012 / 8 pm / Room 1199, KG I

Professor Dr. Aurel Croissant

(Universität Heidelberg)

Civil-military relations in Southeast Asia

30. Januar 2012 / 8 pm / Room 1015, KG I

Professor Dr. Claudia Derichs

(Universität Marburg)

Transformation, democratization und Islamization in Southeast Asia from a gender perspective

6. Februar 2012 / 8 pm / Room 1015, KGI

Dr. Christian von Lübke

(Universität Freiburg/Stanford University)

Topographies of Power: The political economy of public goods provision in the post-Marcos Philippines