Date:December 3(Turs.) , 2009 16:00- 18:00
Venue:Middle size meeting room (Room No. 332) on the third floor of Inamori Foundation Memorial Building
Speaker:Dr. Erik Martinez Kuhonta, CSEAS Visiting Research Fellow from McGill University
Title: IS THE MIDDLE CLASS A HARBINGER OF DEMOCRACY? VIDENCE FROM SOUTHEAST ASIA
【Abstract】
A vast body of literature claims that the middle class is a critical
force for democratic transitions, democratic consolidation, and
political stability. Yet, recent events in Thailand and in many
Southeast Asian newly-industrializing countries indicate that the middle
class often challenges democratic regimes or supports authoritarian
juntas. How should we reconcile these divergent views of the middle
class? This presentation will argue that to understand the relationship
between the middle class and democracy it is necessary to analyze the
interests of the middle class, rather than to simply theorize the middle
class as the causal link between economic development and
democratization. By analyzing middle class behavior in four Southeast
Asian countries – Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Singapore – this
article shows that this class will rebel when democratic or
authoritarian regimes fail to address their key concerns: corruption,
economic development, and political stability.
Bio
Erik Martinez Kuhonta is assistant professor of political science at
McGill University in Montreal and a visiting fellow at the Center for
Southeast Asian Studies at Kyoto University. His research interests are
in comparative politics, political economy, and political development,
with a focus on Southeast Asia. He has published in academic journals
including Asian Survey, Pacific Review, Harvard Asia Quarterly, and
American Asian Review, and is co-editor of Southeast Asia in Political
Science: Theory, Region, and Qualitative Analysis (Stanford University
Press, 2008). He received his Ph.D. from Princeton University in 2003.