Civil Society Elites: Field Studies from Cambodia and Indonesia.

• Date: 01 April 2024
• Author: Murg, Bradley J.

Civil Society Elites: Field Studies from Cambodia and Indonesia. Edited by Astrid Noren-Nilsson, Amalinda Savirani and Anders Uhlin. Copenhagen, Denmark: Nordic Institute of Asian Studies Press, 2023. Softcover: 256pp.

The theoretical literature on civil society has evolved as rapidly in recent years as the domestic politics of Southeast Asian states. Understandings of the role, motivations and goals of civil society actors have now moved well beyond the Tocquevillian paradigm--of civil society being "a defence against the oppressive state" (p. 6)--that dominated foreign aid policy and nation-building efforts in the post-Cold War era. Nowadays, civil society is seen in much broader terms. According to Astrid Noren-Nilsson, Amalinda Savirani and Anders Uhlin, it is

... best understood in generic terms as political space. It is a
                collectively organised but informal political sphere of society in
                which non-state actors seek to influence politics from outside
                political parties. It can be analytically distinguished from the state
                party politics and the market economy; but in practice, boundaries
                between the different social spheres tend to be blurred (p. 6)
                

Blurred, too, by the growing political divides between Southeast Asian states, between those that have moved (albeit in fits and starts) towards the consolidation of liberal democracy and those that have headed straight...