Introduction

Abstract

Southeast Asia's unique history, which covers some of the culturally rich nations of the world, has been shaped by both internal and international forces of change. The classical period of Southeast Asian history was marked both by the profound infl uence of forces external to the region and by a range of indigenous responses. Taken together, they shaped the elements for new forms of state and society, religion and culture, economy and commerce, labour relations and the environment.

IPE scholarship about Southeast Asia

“…Literature reviews on Southeast Asian political economy often pit modernization theory against dependency theory (e.g., Rodan, Hewison and Robison 2006a;Rasiah and Schmidt 2010a). However, there is a tendency in this way of presentation to gloss over the diversity in the "school of dependency" and its origins from the traditions of Marxism and Latin American structuralism, both of which predate the introduction of modernization theory (Palma 1978;Higgott 1981).…”

“…Contemporary studies on the political economy of Southeast Asia, especially those influenced by the Murdoch School, have criticized dependency theory for what they interpret as its static approach, resulting in its inability to explain processes of social change and to take into account the specific dynamics in different national situations within the region (e.g., Rodan, Hewison and Robison 2006a;Rasiah and Schmidt 2010a). These criticisms have been made along theoretical, methodological, empirical, and analytical terms.…”

“…Although these major books of the Murdoch School can be said to be single country-case studies and thus defeating the object of comparative study (Rasiah and Schmidt 2010a), the theoretical and analytical tools of social conflict theory that they have outlined over the years encourage a comparative political economy perspective (Hameiri and Jones 2014). The approach would be able to demonstrate the social relations and disposition of power in capitalism, specifically the embedded relationships between market, state, and society at national and international levels.…”