POWER TO THE PEOPLE? POPULIST CHALLENGES IN SOUTHEAST ASIA

Abstract

With the unexpected victories of Donald Trump in America and the pro-Brexit camp in the UK, populism has received considerable interest from scholars, political observers and the public alike. While populism has also emerged in Southeast Asia, there is a relative lack of studies on Southeast Asian populism as compared to that in other regions, especially in Europe and Latin America. This thesis seeks to contribute to the growing literature on populism in Southeast Asia. It applies the ideational approach to populism, which is novel for Southeast Asia. Using the factors identified for populism to emerge, (Populist Attitudes, Context, Framing, Organisation), I attempt to explain how populism emerges in Thailand, Philippines and Indonesia, but has been much less successful in Singapore. I argue that the emergence of populism by politicians in Southeast Asia is a result of unresponsive democratic governance in the region. Against the backdrop of oligarchic rule under the guise of democracy, “outsider” politicians can easily appeal to a vague notion of the “People” against a corrupt “Elite” to win popular support. This is facilitated by weak or weakening clientelist linkages of people to parties.