Elites vs. reform in Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam

Journal of Democracy

Volumn 23, Issue 2, 2012, Pages 34-46

  Gainsborough, Martin ^a  

^a University of Bristol   (United Kingdom)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 84859942938     PISSN: 10455736     EISSN: 10863214     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1353/jod.2012.0024     Document Type: Article

References (23)

1. Borje Ljunggren, ed., The Challenge of Reform in Indochina (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1993).
2. Barry Naughton, Growing Out of the Plan: Chinese Economic Reform, 1978-93 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995), 22.
3. Adam Fforde, "The Political Economy of 'Reform' in Vietnam: Some Reflections," unpubl. ms., 1991, 8.
4. Søren Ivarsson, Thommy Svensson, and Stein Tønnesson, The Quest for Balance in a Changing Laos: A Political Analysis, NIAS Reports 25, 1995, Nordic Institute for Asian Studies, Copenhagen, 51-52.
5. Communist Party of Vietnam, Seventh National Congress: Documents (Hanoi: Vietnam Foreign Languages Publishing House, 1991), 104
6. and Ivarrson et al., Quest for Balance, 38-39.
7. Caroline Hughes, The Political Economy of the Cambodian Transition, 1991-2001 (London: Routledge, 2003).
8. David Chandler, "Cambodia in 2009: Plus C'est la Même Chose," Asian Survey 50 (January-February 2010): 229.
9. Without being deterministic or forgetting the mutability of culture, I would posit that the resistance to democracy in these societies lies at the intersection where something uniquely Southeast Asian meets a legacy of longtime communist rule. The notion of "something uniquely Southeast Asian" refers to the influence of India over China-or a coming-together of Indian and Chinese influence-in the precolonial era and the way in which this influence worked its way differently through Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos, respectively, with the upshot in each being a legacy that endures to this day. For more on this
10. see Alexander Woodside, Vietnam and the Chinese Model: A Comparative Study of Nguyen and Ching Civil Government in the First Half of the Nineteenth Century (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1971)
11. Robert S. Newman, Brahmin and Mandarin: A Comparison of the Cambodian and Vietnamese Revolutions, Centre of Southeast Asian Studies, Working Papers, Monash University, 1978.
12. Geir Helgesen and Li Xing, "Good Governance-Democracy or Minzhu," in Hans Antlöv and Tak-Wing Ngo, eds., The Cultural Construction of Politics in Asia (Richmond, Surry: Curzon, 2000), 175-202.
13. R.H. Taylor, ed., The Politics of Elections in Southeast Asia (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996).
14. Antlöv and Ngo, Cultural Construction of Politics.
15. Martin Gainsborough, Dang Ngoc Dinh, and Tran Thanh Phuong, "Corruption, Public Administration and Development: Challenges and Opportunities as Viet Nam Moves Towards Middle-Income Status," in Jairo Acu~na-Alfaro, ed., Reforming Public Administration Reform in Vietnam: Current Situation and Recommendations (Hanoi: National Political Publishing House, 2009), 377-427.
16. Caroline Hughes, "Cambodia in 2007: Development and Dispossession," Asian Survey 48 (January-February 2008): 71.
17. Although reliable comparative data are hard to come by, all three countries have seen high levels of rural-to-urban migration during the reform years. The cities in Vietnam and Cambodia are much larger than those in Laos, but there too the process of urbanization and its effects have been no less significant. Masses of rural migrants strain urban infrastructure and bring new social pressures to bear. In terms of the urban middle class, there are signs of its growth in all three countries as evidenced by conspicuous consumption, foreign travel and education, and increased leisure time. Middle-class political activism, generally of a reformist nature, is most pronounced in Vietnam, though Cambodia and Laos have nascent networks of middle-class activists as well. For background
18. see Sarthi Acharya, "Labour Migration in the Transitional Economies of South-East Asia," Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific, December 2003, 1-21
19. and Lisa Drummond and Mandy Thomas, eds., Consuming Urban Culture in Contemporary Vietnam (London: RoutledgeCurzon, 2003).
20. Tat Yan Kong, "Power Alternation in South Korea," Government and Opposition 35 (July 2000): 370-91.
21. Laurence Whitehead, "Afterword: On Cultures and Contexts," in Antlöv and Ngo, Cultural Construction of Politics, 234.
22. Han Sung-Joo, "South Korea in 1987: The Politics of Democratization," Asian Survey 28 (January 1988): 52-61.
23. Michael Barr, "Perpetual Revisionism in Singapore: The Limits of Change," Pacific Review 16, no. 1 (2003): 77-97.