Gangsters, Democracy, and the State in Southeast Asia

An essay collection that studies workaday, regional politics in Southeast Asia and its implications for evolving democracies. The contributors examine the electoral process, conflicts between central and local governments, conflicts between individual freedoms and state power, and the roles charismatic, opportunistic strongmen have played in Southeast Asian politics, most notably in Thailand, Burma, and the Philippines.

Carl A. Trocki is the Jacobson Visiting Associate Professor of Southeast Asian History at Georgetown University.