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Forthcoming
Governance and Democracy in the Asia Pacific: Political and Civil Society (Hardback)
Edited by William Case, Stephen McCarthy
Routledge – 1st November 2014 – 240 pages
ISBN: 978-0-415-72063-2
http://www.routledge.com/books/details/9780415720632/

In the Asia Pacific region, historical legacies and social structures dispose civil and political society to interact in different ways to Western best-practice scenarios which then go on to produce have implications for democracy and governance. These outcomes are derived from conditions that are delicately intertwined and are influenced by, and have influence upon, colonial legacies, religion, ethnic pluralism, the role of the military, the monarchy, bureaucratic capacities, constitutions, party systems, elections, executive-legislative relations, and the judiciaries. This book examines this complex network of underlying conditions and the relations between them, examining the nature of civil and political society in the Asia-Pacific region as well as the presence, or absence, of good governance and democracy. Divded into three themes - governance and democracy, political society, and civil society - each theme is intended to focus our attention on the kinds of issues it identifies and, in turn, encourage both an analytical and a comparative study between a number of similar countries or cases in the Asia Pacific region.

Table of Contents:

1. Introduction, William Case and Stephen McCarthy

Part I: Governance and Democracy
2. Democracy and Good Governance: A Conceptual Analysis of a Contested Relation, Riccardo Pelizzo
3. Good Governance versus Liberal Democracy? Uncivil Society in Thailand and the Philippines, Mark R. Thompson

Part II: Political Society
4. Electoral Governance in the Asia-Pacific: Models of Democracy in Asia and the Pacific, Benjamin Reilly
5. Is Accountability Less in New Democracies than under Authoritarian Rule?
Lessons in Executive-Legislative Relations and Governance in the Philippines, Indonesia and Malaysia, William Case
6. Governance and the Judicialization of Politics in Asia, Bjoern Dressel
7. Political Parties, Legislatures and Governance in the South Pacific, Henry Okole

Part III: Civil Society
8. The Nature of Civil Society and Governance in Militarized Regimes: Lessons from Burma and Fiji, Stephen McCarthy
9. Religion, Think Tanks and the Governance of Political Transformation in China, Doug Smith
10. Chinese Civil Society Organizations, Minjian Tuanti and their Legal Environment: An Exploration into the Governance of the Informal Political Sector in China, David Schak

11. Conclusion, William Case and Stephen McCarthy

Prisms on the Golden Pagoda: Perspectives on National Reconciliation in Myanmar

Kyaw Yin Hlaing (Editor)

Publisher: NUS Press
Year: 2014

ISBN: 978-9971-69-636-8 Paperback US$32.00 S$38.00

Just as the prismatic effects of glass mosaics or mirrors produce the spectrums of colour that give Myanmar's pagodas their glittering iridescence, Prisms on the Golden Pagoda offers a spectrum of views on the country's national reconciliation process. Because many of Myanmar's outlying ethnic groups straddle the country's borders with neighbouring countries in South and Southeast Asia and with China, the outcome of this process is crucial not only for the country's current domestic liberalization but also for regional geopolitics.

The editor of this volume, Kyaw Yin Hlaing is a US-trained academic who currently serves as an advisor to Myanmar's President. He has assembled contributions from veteran activists such as the Shan leader U Shwe Ohn, the Chin politician Lian H. Sakhong, Widura Thakin Chit Maung, once leader of Burma's "Red Socialists," and Thamarr Taman, formerly a senior civil servant. Commentary by the editor, and by Robert H. Taylor and British diplomat-turned activist Derek Tonkin, explains the context and significance of these materials. By showing how the national reconciliation effort has been viewed inside the country, the contributors provide an important insider's perspective on Myanmar's difficult legacies of violence and separatism.

KYAW Yin Hlaing is the Secretary of the Myanmar Peace Center and Advisor to the President of Myanmar. He was an Assistant Professor in the Department of Asian and International Studies at the City University of Hong Kong and one of the founding members of Myanmar Egress.

Table of Contents:

1 Introduction to the Perspectives and Politics of the National Reconciliation Process in Myanmar Kyaw Yin Hlaing
2 Political Impasse in Myanmar Kyaw Yin Hlaing
3 Milestones in Efforts at Reconciliation in the Union of Myanmar Thamarr Taman
4 Building a Lasting Federal Union of Myanmar U Shwe Ohn
5 The Third Union of Myanmar: What System Should We Use for Its Construction? Widura Thakin Chit Maung
6 The Third Constitution of the Union of Myanmar Robert H. Taylor
7 The Burmese Exile Community and the National Reconciliation Process Derek Tonkin
8 Reassessing the Economic Sanctions Imposed by Western Governments on Myanmar Kyaw Yin Hlaing
9 Burma at a Crossroad Lian H. Sakhong
10 The Unexpected Arrival of a New Political Era in Myanmar Kyaw Yin Hlaing

The Politics of Marketising Asia
Edited by Toby Carroll and Darryl S.L. Jarvis
Palgrave Macmillan, June 2014
ISBN: 978-1-137-00166-5

Economic growth continues to transform the economic and political landscape of Asia. Equally the policies now being adopted to promote private sector participation, re-structure state entities, and reduce the presence of the state in the provision of public goods and services, are tied to fundamental transformations in Asia's state-society relations. The global cast of contributors present a timely analysis of the impact of neo-liberalism on Asia's developmental policies and the organisation of Asian states and markets. Ironically, the "developmental state" that has historically driven Asia's rapid economic transformation is now threatened by an increasingly dominant neoliberal agenda that aims to roll back the state in the name of market fundamentalism.

Table of Contents:

1. Theorising Asia's Marketisation under Late Capitalism: Risk, Capital and the New Politics of Development; Toby Carroll and Darryl S.L. Jarvis
2. Risk, Social Protection and the World Market; Paul Cammack
3. The International Finance Corporation's Transformation of Development in the Asia Pacific: Working on, Through and Around the State; Toby Carroll
4. Regulatory States in the South: Can they Exist and do we want them? The case of the Indonesian Power Sector; Darryl S.L. Jarvis
5. State-Building and Primitive Accumulation in the Solomon Islands: The Unintended Consequences of Risk Mitigation at the Frontiers of Global Capitalist Expansion; Shahar Hameiri
6. Into the Deep: The World Bank Group and Mining Regimes in Laos, The Philippines and Papua New Guinea; Pascale Hatcher
7. Building Neoliberal Markets and other Agendas: The Politics of Risk Management at AusAID; Thomas Wanner and Andrew Rosser
8. Market building and risk under a Regime in Transition: The Asian Development Bank in Myanmar (Burma); Adam Simpson
9. Reforming the Chinese Railway Sector: The Role and Limits of International Governmental Organisations in Building Markets; Marc Laperrouza
10. Institutional Design and Quality as Determinants of Market Building: The Markets for Corporate Control in Asia; Alberto Asquer
11. The Market Turn in Jakarta's Water Supply: Vested Interests and Challenges of Realising the Regulatory State; Leong Ching
12. Problems and Obstacles to Market Building in the Indian Energy Sector; Pramod Kumar Yadav

Ebook access:
http://www.palgraveconnect.com/pc/doifinder/10.1057/9781137001672