POLYVALENT POPULISM IN SOUTHEAST ASIA

With great pleasure, the Department of Administrative Studies & Politics, Faculty of Economics and Administration, University of Malaya cordially invites you to the

Seminar

POLYVALENT POPULISM IN SOUTHEAST ASIA

By

Dr. Andreas Ufen

Tuesday, 4^th February 2020, 10.00 am

Postgraduate Conference Room, 3^rd Floor Block H12, Postgraduate Building, Faculty of Economics and Administration, UM  

Abstract

In recent years, three prototypes of populists have emerged in Southeast Asia: Thaksin Shinawatra, Prabowo Subianto and Rodrigo Duterte. Based on a definition put forward by Mudde (2004), it is open to question what these cases have in common and whether a specific pattern of populism in Southeast Asia exists. It is argued that the phenomenon at hand is neither an exclusionary right-wing populism like in Europe nor an inclusionary left-wing one such as in Latin America. It is rather a form of anti-democratic populism with some leftist and neoliberal leanings, weak ethno-nationalist foundations and inconsistent policy initiatives. This polyvalent populism is defined by a mixing together of left- and right-wing ideas and policies, of neoliberal and protectionist, as well as of anti- and pro-Western stances. It is a result of ideological confinements (weak leftist legacies and a subdued nativism), organizational constraints (weakly institutionalized parties and a presidentialization of politics) and politico-economic conditionalities (the economic interests of oligarchs, and the constraints of middle-income countries vulnerably incorporated into global markets).

Profile

Dr. Andreas Ufen is an Adjunct Professor for political science at the University of Hamburg and a Senior Research Fellow at the GIGA German Institute of Global and Area Studies, also in Hamburg. His main interests are democratization, political Islam, political parties, populism, and elections in Southeast Asia. He is editor of the Journal of Current Southeast Asian Affairs and has published articles in journals such as Democratization, Pacific Review, Critical Asian Studies, Asian Survey, Contemporary Politics, and South East Asia Research.