Democratic Dawn? Civil Society and Elections in Myanmar 2010-2012

Bibliographic Data

ID8075301
AuthorsMichael Lidauer (0000-0003-3132-4449, Goethe University Frankfurt, corresponding author)
Year2012
Volume31
Issue2
Pages87-114
Publication date2012-06-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Current Southeast Asian Affairs (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1868-1034 • E-ISSN: 1868-4882
PublisherSAGE Publications (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/186810341203100204
OpenAlexW1501849209
LanguageEN
Citations received16
References cited17

While the general elections in Myanmar in November 2010 were widely condemned, both national and international actors approached the by-elections of April 2012 as a political rite-de-passage to improve relations between the government and the opposition inside, and between the former pariah state and the international community outside the country. An undercurrent of the government-led transition process from an authoritarian to a formally more democratic regime was the development of a politically oriented civil society that found ways to engage in the electoral process. This article describes the emerging spaces of election-related civil society activism in the forms of civic and voter education, national election observation, and election-related agency in the media. Noting that, in particular, election observation helps connect civil society to regional and international debates, the paper draws preliminary conclusions about further developments ahead of the general elections in Myanmar expected to take place in 2015

Authoritarianism · Civil society · Democracy · Democratization · General election · Opposition (politics · Pariah group · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Asian Geopolitics and Ethnography · Law · Public Administration

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