London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE)

Modules

89
Politics of Southeast Asia

Prerequisites: 11 Introduction to international relations and 80 Introduction to politics.

This unit analyses the political orders and political economies of the major societies of Southeast Asia. Students will be required to focus on some of the following countries: Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam. The topics of study are as follows:

(I) Historical legacies and their effect on the region’s political economy: colonialism, the Cold War.

(II) International relations and organisations: the power and influence of overseas states, regional and global institutions, treaties, trade regimes.

(III) Economic modernisation: the correlation between regime types, economic growth and developmental models (the planned economy, the Asian ‘developmental state’).

(IV) Political modernisation: influences on the development and nature of the modern state (democratisation and civil society, one-party rule, civil-military