Co-published by the East-West Center, this book originated in a 2004 conference convened by the Southast Asia Forum (SEAF) at Shorenstein APARC.

The book in which this chapter appears—Southeast Asia in Political Science: Theory, Region, and Qualitative Analysis (ed. Erik Martinez Kuhonta, Dan Slater, and Tuong Vu—argues that Southeast Asian political studies have made important contributions to theory building in comparative politics through a dialogue involving theory, area studies, and qualitative methodology.

The book provides a state-of-the-art review of key topics in the field, including: state structures, political regimes, political parties, contentious politics, civil society, ethnicity, religion, rural development, globalization, and political economy. The chapters allow readers to trace the development of the field of Southeast Asian politics and to address central debates in comparative politics. The book will serve as a valuable reference for undergraduate and graduate students, scholars of Southeast Asian politics, and comparativists engaged in theoretical debates at the heart of political science.

Shorenstein APARC acknowledges permission granted reproduce this chapter from Southeast Asia in Political Science: Theory, Region, and Qualitative Analysis, edited by Erik Martinez Kuhonta, Dan Slater, and Tuong Vu, (c) 2007 by the Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Jr. University, all rights reserved. No further use, reproduction or distribution is allowed without the prior written permission of Stanford University Press, http://www.sup.org.

REVIEWS

"The scholarship here is excellent. These people know their region and its literature cold. This collection demonstrates the potential of qualitative Southeast Asian area studies to contribute to the broader accumulation of knowledge in political science, including the development of disciplinary theory."
-Jack Snyder, Columbia University

"This collection consists of elegantly written, carefully crafted, intelligent, and interesting essays that will be of enormous value to scholars of the politics of Southeast Asia."
-John Sidel, London School of Economics