Caretaking Democratization: The Military and Political Change in Myanmar.

• Author: Haacke, Jurgen

Caretaking Democratization: The Military and Political Change in Myanmar. By Renaud Egreteau. London: Hurst & Co, 2016. Hardcover: 193pp.

In Caretaking Democratization the French scholar Renaud Egreteau adds his voice to the growing body of literature on Myanmar's recent political transition. Egreteau already has a considerable number of publications on Myanmar under his belt, not least on the role of the military in the country's politics and the role of the national-level parliament since reforms were introduced in 2011. As such, it is not surprising that, like other academics, Egreteau sees endogenous rather than external factors as key to the "pacted" transition he says we have witnessed in Myanmar (p. 15). The title of the book clearly conveys the thrust of Egreteau's argument: namely, that when compared to the period of direct military rule that preceded it, the period between 2011 and early 2016 is one in which the military limited its interventionism in Myanmar politics to that of the "guardian" army. The Tatmadaw, the official name for the armed forces, remains the "last resort decision-maker" in the post-SPDC (State Peace and Development Council) hybrid system. For Egreteau, Myanmar's transition from military rule is a sui generis case (p. 3).

The book consists of six substantive chapters. In the opening chapter, Egreteau contextualizes the recent transition with reference to Myanmar's political history. His discussion shows that the "pacted" transition, which is also described as a "loose settlement" (p. 32), was sought by the military leadership, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and the National League for Democracy as well as ethnic leaders who were willing to compromise to move politics forward. As Egreteau explains, the transition was long planned by the military and can be re-traced at the very least to the 2003 political roadmap to a discipline-flourishing democracy on which the then military regime embarked in the aftermath of the renewed detention of Suu Kyi if not to the early days of the State Law and Order Restoration Council. The importance of the role of wider social elites and political entrepreneurs as drivers of political transition has arguably been the focus of more detailed work published elsewhere. Nevertheless, Egreteau similarly maintains that "the 'Third Force' has participated in the shaping of the 'environmental conditions' necessary to the bargaining of a loose 'pact' once the SPDC was disbanded in 2011" (p. 36).

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