Prospects of democratic consolidation in Southeast Asia : the case of the Philippines, Thailand and Indonesia.

With a minimum of seven years of democratic experience, Philippines, Thailand and Indonesia should have gone beyond the process of democratic transition. Yet, democracy in each of these countries remains unconsolidated and prospects for consolidation continue to be low. The two dimensions of derpocratic stability and quality are equally important for the consolidation of democracies. While Philippines possesses democratic stability and lacks quality, Thailand lacks both. The picture for Indonesia is mixed with a slight optimism towards the stability dimension, but more pessimistic at the quality’s end. Money politics, corruption, weak institutions, restrained civil societies, and separatism/sectarian violence/terrorism, are some of the common problems that the countries will have to tackle before they can achieve democratic consolidation.Master of Science (International Relations