Middle Class, Civil Society and Democracy in Asia

✍ Scribed by Hsin-Huang Michael Hsiao

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2018
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 223
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

This book offers a timely analysis of the tripartite links between the middle class, civil society and democratic experiences in Northeast and Southeast Asia. It aims to go beyond the two popular theoretical propositions in current democratic theory, which emphasise the bilateral connections between the middle class and democracy on one hand and civil society and democracy on the other. Instead, using national case studies, this volume attempts to provide a new comparative typological interpretation of the triple relationship in Taiwan, South Korea, the Philippines, Indonesia and Thailand. Presenting a careful analysis and delineation of historical democratic transformation over the past thirty years, three discernible typologies emerge. Namely, there are positive links in Taiwan and South Korea, dubious links in the Philippines and Indonesia, and negative links in Thailand.

Middle Class, Civil Society and Democracy in Asia will be of interest to students and scholars of Asian politics and democracy.

✦ Table of Contents

Cover
Half title
Title page
Copyright page
Table of contents
List of illustrations
Notes on contributors
Acknowledgments
Part I: Overview
1 Comparing the tripartite links of middle class, civil society and democratization in Asia: positive, dubious and negative
Part II: The positive links in Taiwan and South Korea
2 The tripartite links of middle class, civil society and democracy in Taiwan: 1980–2016
3 Democracy and institution building through civil societyactivism in Taiwan: the case of the Judicial Reform Foundation
4 The tripartite links of middle class, civil society and democratization in South Korea
Part III: The dubious links in the Philippines and Indonesia
5 The middle-class-led Left movement in civil society’s role in the Philippines’ democratization process
6 Coalition politics and the contested democracy in the Philippines
7 Democratization and religious NGOs in Indonesia
Part IV: The negative links in Thailand
8 Contingent authoritarians: why Thai civil society and the middle class oppose democracy
9 Thailand at the critical royal transition: the middle class,civil society and democratisation
10 From paragons to opponents of democracy: middle class in civil society’s role in Thailand’s democratization
Index