Liberalism and Democracy in Myanmar
Author: Roman David
Publisher:
Published: 2018
Total Pages: 251
ISBN-13: 0198809603
DOWNLOAD EBOOKThis book examines the contours of Myanmar's political culture in the context of ongoing reform.
Posts
Myanmar in Transition
Author: Claiton Fyock
Publisher:
Published: 2015
Total Pages: 126
ISBN-13:
DOWNLOAD EBOOKAbstract: Myanmar is in the midst of a major political/economic transition. After years of repressive rule under a harsh military regime, the country is moving towards liberalism. At the behest of the domestic and foreign liberal pressure, the foundations of liberalism including the rule of law, democracy, and open markets are taking shape in Myanmar. This paper demonstrates the lack of agency that Myanmar, both as a state and for the citizens within the state, maintains during this transition. This lack of agency is due, in part, to the neoliberal interpretation of liberalism and its founding tenets. Utilizing Roberto Unger and Susan Marks's theories of "False Necessity" and "False Contingency,"I will demonstrate how international institutions and ideologies are propagated and forced on Myanmar. The belief in these ideologies and institutions creates pressures and imposes limitations on the systems that they influence in Myanmar. These pressures and limits, in turn, create a lack of true agency in the transition that Myanmar and its people are experiencing. I begin by first exploring the general liberal thought in regards to transition. I then demonstrate the false contingencies that a neoliberal understanding on the liberal tenets reflects. I apply this dynamic to actual circumstances in Myanmar as a case. The thesis concludes with the exploration of the concept of false contingency on Myanmar's transition to democratization, neoliberalizing markets, and its embrace of human rights.
International Norms and Local Politics in Myanmar
Author: Yukiko Nishikawa
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2022-03-07
Total Pages: 140
ISBN-13: 1000545881
DOWNLOAD EBOOKNishikawa explores how international norms have been adopted in the local context in Myanmar to project a certain international image, while in fact the authorities are exploiting these norms to protect their own interests. In the liberal international world order promoted since the end of the Cold War, democracy, rule of law and human rights have become key components in state and peace-building around the world. Many donor governments and international organisations have promoted them in their aid and assistance. However, the promotion of these international norms is based on a flawed understanding of sovereignty and the world. For this reason, the enforcement of these international norms in Myanmar not only fails to protect vulnerable people but also, in some instances, exacerbates the situation, thereby generating critical insecurity to the most vulnerable people. A vital resource for scholars of Myanmar’s politics, as well as a valuable case study for International Relations scholars more broadly.
Debating Democratization in Myanmar
Author: Nick Cheesman
Publisher: Flipside Digital Content Company Inc.
Published: 2014-11-07
Total Pages: 343
ISBN-13: 9814519979
DOWNLOAD EBOOKIs Myanmar (Burma) democratizing, or is it moving towards a new form of authoritarianism, perhaps one more consonant with other contemporary authoritarian regimes in Asia? Coming at a critical time, and one of growing interest in this Southeast Asian country among researchers and policymakers, Debating Democratization in Myanmar addresses this complex question from a range of disciplinary and professional perspectives. Chapters by leading international scholars and practitioners, activists and politicians from Myanmar and around the world cover political and economic updates, as well as the problems of democratization; the re-engagement of democratic activists and exiles in domestic affairs; the new parliament, the electoral system, and everyday politics; prospects for the economy; ethnic cooperation, contestation and conflict; the role of the army and police forces; and conditions for women. Together they constitute an empirically deep and analytically rich source of readable and relevant material for anyone keen to obtain a greater understanding of what is happening in Myanmar today, and why.
Democratisation of Myanmar
Author: Nehginpao Kipgen
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Published: 2021-09-30
Total Pages: 164
ISBN-13: 1000462358
DOWNLOAD EBOOKOn February 1, 2021, Myanmar’s military coup abruptly ended a decade of a civilian-military hybrid regime – a massive setback for the democratisation process. Citizens from all walks of life took to the streets and protests erupted over the following weeks, and Myanmar became the centre of global attention. This book brings up to date how the story of Myanmar’s experiment with democracy unravelled over the last few years. This second edition: ● Traces the political transition of Myanmar from a military rule of nearly five decades to a short-lived democratic experiment; ● Outlines the factors that contributed to this transition and the circumstances in which it took place; ● Shows how political groups – especially Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD) – and the military worked together and paved the way for democratisation and what led to the failure of the NLD government; ● Examines the 2020 general election and the declaration of national emergency following the NLD landslide electoral win. Bringing together a balance of primary ethnographic fieldwork and nuanced analysis, this book will be of great interest to scholars and researchers of Asian and Southeast Asian Studies, politics and political processes, democratisation process and democratic transitions, international relations and peace and conflict studies, especially those concerned with Myanmar.
Demystifying Myanmar’s Transition and Political Crisis
Author: Chosein Yamahata
Publisher: Springer Nature
Published: 2022-01-11
Total Pages: 352
ISBN-13: 981166675X
DOWNLOAD EBOOKThis book offers the assessment of Myanmar’s societal changes, development aspects, and political situation over the course of the nation’s short lived democratic transition disrupted by the coup d’état on 1 February 2021. A multitude of authors with different expertise add new dimensions of analysis to provide a foundation for any future international cooperation in Myanmar’s center and peripheries. The military’s institutionalization of its influence and control in political, economic and social affairs has negatively affected the safety, security and peace of people and their communities at the periphery. This in turn has led the people to undertake local grassroots initiatives towards securing a genuine democratic transition at the local and national level. The chapters probe into Myanmar’s transition and political crisis through in-depth discussion on the issues such as, but not limited to, state fragility, community resilience, political leadership, ethnic women’s organizations, human security, education equality, IDPs and non-state actors, ethnic community-based health organizations, the 2020 election, peace process, development issues, the coup’s destruction, and a new-born unity. The book covers an important collection of inputs from young and prominent scholars alike, offering a valuable resource for general readers, students, and practitioners. The editors present this volume as a vital collection to literature at a time of heated political crisis and societal responses on her current course since the contributors highlight the state of Myanmar by also focusing on the margins, the grassroots, and the recent coup.
Securing a Democratic Future for Myanmar
Author: Priscilla A. Clapp
Publisher: Council on Foreign Relations Press
Published: 2016-03-01
Total Pages: 59
ISBN-13: 0876096704
DOWNLOAD EBOOKTo ensure the success of Myanmar's historic democratic transition, the United States should revise its outdated and counterproductive sanctions policy, writes Priscilla A. Clappin a new report from the Council on Foreign Relations' Center for Preventive Action. When the Aung San Suu Kyi–led National League for Democracy assumes power in Myanmar next week, the party will inherit the long-standing problems that developed in the country's half-century of military dictatorship. U.S. support for a successful transition will help strengthen the newly elected government and prevent a return to martial law. "Continuing to rely on a sanctions regime—designed primarily to inhibit U.S. participation in and assistance to Myanmar's economy and government—no longer makes sense, particularly when Western allies and others observe no restrictions on their activities in Myanmar," Clapp contends in the Council Special Report, Securing a Democratic Future for Myanmar. "Washington should therefore restructure the remaining financial sanctions and restrictions to carefully target individuals and entities to promote better behavior, rather than punish bad behavior." Clapp, the former chief of mission at the U.S. Embassy in Myanmar and senior advisor to the U.S. Institute of Peace and the Asia Society, argues that reforms over the past five years have transformed Myanmar "from a country of little strategic interest to the United States into one that promises substantial benefit to core U.S. interests in Southeast Asia and beyond." However, she cautions that the situation remains fragile. "More than five decades of military rule have left large parts of the country in a near feudal condition, beset by an overly large national army, a multitude of ethnic armed forces, and hundreds of militias," she warns. "Rule of law is almost nonexistent, and the competition for resources and wealth is a virtual free-for-all." Clapp offers several other recommendations for how the United States and other international actors can support the democratic transition in Myanmar, including expanding and coordinating global aid, helping to resolve the stateless status of Rohingya Muslims, developing a stronger relationship with the military, and strengthening Myanmar's integration into the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).
Narrating Democracy in Myanmar
Author: Tamas Wells
Publisher: Amsterdam University Press
Published: 2021-04-30
Total Pages: 213
ISBN-13: 9048553792
DOWNLOAD EBOOKThis book analyses what Myanmar's struggle for democracy has signified to Burmese activists and democratic leaders, and to their international allies. In doing so, it explores how understanding contested meanings of democracy helps make sense of the country's tortuous path since Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy won historic elections in 2015. Using Burmese and English language sources, Narrating Democracy in Myanmar reveals how the country's ongoing struggles for democracy exist not only in opposition to Burmese military elites, but also within networks of local activists and democratic leaders, and international aid workers.
Democracy in Myanmar and the Paradox of International Politics
Author: Xiaolin Guo
Publisher:
Published: 2009
Total Pages: 42
ISBN-13: 9789185937547
DOWNLOAD EBOOK" ... Revisiting political developments in Myanmar, this paper draws attention to the unintended consequences of a "politically correct" contemporary practice, raising questions not about the values of democracy per se, but rather about the practice of intervention in that very name, irrespective of indigenous conditions. Equally, it dwells not on the technicality of "humanitarian intervention" that falls within the purview of the UN mandate, but instead, the paper challenges the use of that concept as a foreign policy tool without giving sufficient consideration to its socio-economic consequences in another country. The paper argues that without taking into account its history, ethnic complexity, and socio-economic conditions, any policy-making toward Myanmar is likely to remain irrelevant to what is going on inside the country. Finally, the relative fading of rhetoric concerning "building democracy" from foreign policy speeches in the new U.S. Administration under President Obama is eye-opening, and being watched closely by the international community to determine how the change will materialize in policy-making toward Myanmar."--Executive summary.
Myanmar's Transition
Author: Nick Cheesman
Publisher: Flipside Digital Content Company Inc.
Published: 2003-08-01
Total Pages: 332
ISBN-13: 9814517704
DOWNLOAD EBOOKWith the world watching closely, Myanmar began a process of political, administrative and institutional transition from 30 January 2011. After convening the parliament, elected in November 2010, the former military regime transferred power to a new government headed by former Prime Minister (and retired general), U Thein Sein. With parliamentary processes restored in MyanmarIs new capital of Naypyitaw, Thein SeinIs government announced a wide-ranging reform agenda, and began releasing political prisoners and easing press censorship. Pivotal meetings between Thein Sein and Aung San Suu Kyi led to amendment of the Election Law and the National League for Democracy contesting by-elections in April 2012. The 2011 Myanmar/Burma update conference considered the openings offered by these political changes and media reforms and the potential opportunities for international assistance. Obstacles covered include impediments to the rule of law, the continuation of human rights abuses, the impunity of the Army, and the failure to end ethnic insurgency.
