Democratization and Identity: Regimes and Ethnicity in East and Southeast Asia

Do authoritarian regimes manage ethnic pluralism better than democracies? Is the process of democratization itself destructive of inter-ethnic accomodation? The notable contributors to Democratization and Identity explore and challenge such arguments as they introduce the experiences of East and Southeast Asia into the study of democratization in ethnically (including religiously) diverse societies. This insightful volume views political regimes and ethnic identities as co-constitutive: authoritarianism, democratization, and democracy are interconnected processes of (re)producing collective (including ethnic) identities and political power, under the influence of entrenched and evolving sociopolitical relations and forms of economic production. Democratization and Identity suggests that the risk of ethnicized conflict, exclusion, or hierarchy during democratization depends in large part on the nature of the ethnic identities and relations constituted during authoritarian rule. This collection’s theoretical breakthroughs and its country case studies shed light on the prospects for ethnically inclusive and non-hierarchical democratization across East and Southeast Asia and beyond.