Asian Studies Commons^™

Why Some Authoritarian Regimes Do Not Just Win Elections But Win Big: Lessons From Cambodia And Malaysia, Limeng Ong

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

Electoral authoritarian regimes have risen in the post-Cold War era. Elections and other nominally democratic institutions such political parties and legislatures not only do not make authoritarian regimes democratize but also help them to resist democratization. However, even if authoritarian regimes adopt electoral institutions, such adoption does not mean that all authoritarian regimes can easily manipulate elections. Indeed, some regimes hang on to power barely with simple majority votes, while others easily receive supermajority electoral support. What account for variation in electoral strength of ruling parties in authoritarian regimes? I attempt to answer this question. There are four main factors …

Pung Chhiv Kek [Cambodia, Activist], Pung Chhiv Kek

Digital Narratives of Asia

Dr Pung Chhiv Kek is the Founder and President of the Cambodian League for the Promotion and Defense of Human Rights (LICADHO) and was nominated in 2005 for the Nobel Peace Prize as part of the 1000 Women for the Nobel Peace Prize project. Apart from her work to improve the rights and lives of Cambodians, she talks to DNA about her efforts to bring Hun Sen and Sihanouk together for talks, which later led to the Peace Accords of 1991.

The Phnom Penh Report: National Landscape, Current Challenges And Opportunities For Growth, Institute For Societal Leadership, John W. Ellington

Institute of Societal Leadership Research Collection

Once a relatively sleepy agrarian kingdom, Cambodia has experienced some of the most horrific violence since the close of the Second World War. Between 1970 and 1999, the country was the victim of both a brutal civil war as well wider regional conflicts. The Khmer Rouge seizure of power in 1975 brought four years of forced collectivisation and mass killings that have haunted the Cambodian psyche ever since. The decade of Vietnamese occupation that followed only further exacerbated the country’s massive humanitarian problems. When the United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia (UNTAC) exited after elections in 1993, it left behind …

Sex-Trafficking In Cambodia: Assessing The Role Of Ngos In Rebuilding Cambodia, Katherine M. Wood

Senior Honors Theses

The anti-slavery and other freedom fighting movements of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries did not abolish all forms of slavery. Many forms of modern slavery thrive in countries all across the globe. The sex trafficking trade has intensified despite the advocacy of many human rights-based groups. Southeast Asia ranks very high in terms of the source, transit, and destination of sex trafficking. In particular, human trafficking of women and girls for the purpose of forced prostitution remains an increasing problem in Cambodia. Cambodia’s cultural traditions and the breakdown of law under the Khmer Rouge and Democratic Kampuchea have contributed to …

“Revolution By Eradication:” On The Khmer Rouge’S Making Of The Tragedy Of Cambodia, Matthew S. Weinert

Human Rights & Human Welfare

A review of:

The Killing of Cambodia: Geography, Genocide and the Unmaking of Space . By James A. Tyner. Aldershot, England: Ashgate Publishing, 2008. 209pp.

Political Genocides In Postcolonial Asia, Robert Cribb

Robert Cribb

Argues that mass political killing constitutes genocide when it is intended to destroy a political group. Discusses political genocides in Indonesia, China and Cambodia.

Changing The Culture Of Corruption - Do Small Steps Count?, Rhona Smith

Human Rights & Human Welfare

Corruption is endemic in modern society, but history attests this problem is as old as states themselves. No single solution to date has garnered sufficient political and/or popular support to effect change. Could education play a role in changing the culture?

April Roundtable: Introduction

Human Rights & Human Welfare

An annotation of:

“Cambodia's Curse” by Joel Brinkley. Foreign Affairs. March/April 2009.

Cursing Cambodia, Charli Carpenter

Human Rights & Human Welfare

Joel Brinkley has written a heartbreaking piece in Foreign Affairs about Cambodian society thirty-five years after Pol Pot. We are presented with anecdote after anecdote about historical trauma, corruption, and poverty. It’s a depressing picture, and an important country case to have on the US’ foreign policy radar screen.

No Show, Mark Gibney

Human Rights & Human Welfare

For someone of my generation, any mention of Cambodia conjures up a jumble of images and emotions—albeit, nearly all from the distant past. Always appearing, but in no particular order, would be: the revelation of Nixon’s secret war; the killings at Kent State; strikes that closed down a number of American college campuses; Pol Pot; the seemingly endless debate whether to use the term Cambodia or the more radical “Kampuchea”; Prince Sihanouk; and last but certainly not least: the Khmer Rouge as the personification of a Third World liberation movement.

New Government In Cambodia, Tyler Moselle

Human Rights & Human Welfare

The government of Cambodia is replete with corruption and does not respond adequately to the needs of its citizens according to Joel Brinkley’s Foreign Affairs article “Cambodia’s Curse.” Pol Pot, the killing fields, and the Khmer Rouge still linger in the memories of most Americans when Cambodia’s name is mentioned. Yet, the country is currently languishing in the arms of an unresponsive governing elite whose fortunes may continue to improve due to oil and continuous aid grafting.

A Curse Not Limited To Cambodia, Chandra Lekha Sriram

Human Rights & Human Welfare

Brinkley’s piece draws welcome attention to the virtual farce of hybrid justice now underway in Cambodia, although the emphasis of the piece on the prevalence of corruption de-emphasizes a broader point: human rights protections are not respected in Cambodia, and serious accountability for the abuses by the Khmer Rouge or any subsequent abuses are unlikely, not merely because leaders are corrupt, but because the wide scale culture of impunity makes the protection of human rights and functional rule of law virtually impossible.

A Coincidental Trip To Cambodia, Rebecca Otis

Human Rights & Human Welfare

In a timely coincidence, Henry Alford’s recent travel article, “Banishing the Ghosts in Cambodia,” recently tantalized this reader with visions of a destination vacation in mind. Written for the travel-inspired readership of the New York Times, Alford’s version of Cambodia as a newly reborn hotspot for far flung Westerners approaches the point of lulling his decidedly non-Cambodian audience into pleasantly myopic vision of a plush Cambodian phoenix fully risen from its mired ashes. Amidst the outcropping of chic resorts and beautiful beaches reincarnated from the elegant, pre-Khmer Rouge moment of Cambodia’s forgotten past, Alford banishes the ghosts of Pol Pot’s …

Asia Country Risk Analysis Cambodia, Michele Gibney

Michele Gibney

Cambodia, as it currently stands, does not make for an attractive or viable investment area. Based on a realistic point of view, Cambodia poses many security risks to potential investors based on their current domestic situation. In order to understand why this is so, this risk analysis will outline Cambodia’s internal domestic situation as it comes out of their tumultuous history. In addition to this the risk analysis will identify Cambodia’s bilateral and multilateral relations and explain how these do not provide strong support for investors looking to do business in Cambodia. In conclusion the risk analysis will provide a …

Cambodia's 1998 Elections: The Failure Of Democratic Consolidation, Peter M. Manikas, Eric Bjornlund

New England Journal of Public Policy

This article examines why Cambodia 's transition to democracy faltered in the years that followed the United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia period despite the international community's assistance to two "democratic" elections.