ROUTLEDGE HANDBOOK OF AUTOCRATIZATION IN SOUTHEAST ASIA (HB 2025)

The Routledge Handbook of Autocratization in Southeast Asia examines how global and domestic forces of autocratization affect regional and local politics. It analyzes how the interactions of international and domestic factors affect actors and institutions in both democracies and autocracies in the region.

Bringing together a representative slate of both local and international, junior and senior scholars of different methodological backgrounds, this Handbook cross-examines regional trends and provides an insider view of the causes and effects of autocratization in a region with diverse experiences with de-colonization, state-building, and economic and political developments. The 28 chapters are organized into three sections. Part I examines a range of structural, international, socio-political, technological, and ideological causal factors of autocratization. Part II offers a comparative analysis of the consequences of autocratization on key actors and democratic institutions. Part III provides a more detailed study of autocratic consolidation and pushback in each country in Southeast Asia. Taking into account structural-historical, institutional, and cultural factors, the contributors analyze how domestic actors and democratic institutions withstand the global forces of autocratization.

This Handbook fills empirical gaps in the current scholarship by focusing on all nation-states in the Association of Southeast Asia Nations and Timor-Leste, varied regime types with diverse socio-religious backgrounds. It is the first authoritative reference work dedicated to Southeast Asia’s autocratization and will be an indispensable reference work for academics and policymakers interested in democracy and autocracy, regime transition, and Southeast Asian politics.