Perceived Elitist and State-Centric Regional Integration Process: Impact on Public Opinions for the Formation of ASEAN Community

Abstract

Scholars argue that ASEAN is a community of nations and not a community of people. Decision making in ASEAN have

Advancing Community Building for ASEAN

“…According to a recent study, the general public in cities in Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore perceive the formation of ASEAN Community as beneficial, but they see the formation as elitist and state-centric as it did not involve the people [10]. This is a disturbing finding.…”

Economic versus Political Liberalisation in ASEAN: Public Opinion among University Students in Four Member Countries

“…A study by Benny, Moorthy, Daud and Othman (2015a) may explain why the support for AEC tends to be higher than APSC. Their study was conducted using 2010 public opinion data on the effect of elitist regionalism process in ASEAN found the association between elitist, state-centric regional integration process in ASEAN and support for its formation.…”

“…Studies 231 on the ASEAN are numerous, but conducted using the elite decision-making approach for assessing the establishment processes or the social, political and economic challenges of ASEAN (Acharya 2003;Benny, Tham and Ramli 2015;Hew 2007;Guerrero 2008) as well as the readiness of the business sector for the AEC (Abidin et al 2012;Mugijayani and Kartika 2012). Review on the literature found that quite a few studies so far on public opinion on the establishment of ASEAN Community (e.g., Abdullah and Benny 2013;Benny 2014Benny , 2015Benny , 2016aBenny , 2016bBenny and Abdullah, 2011;Benny, Moorthy, Daud andOthman 2015a, 2015b;Benny, Ramli and Tham 2014;Benny, Tham and Ramli 2015;Moorthy and Benny 2012a, 2012bSiraprapasiri and Thalang 2016;Thompson, Thianthai and Thuzar 2016), but only very limited number of studies discuss the opinion on AEC or APSC.…”

“…Regional integration, either induced by people's economic regionalisation and/ or state regionalism initiatives, are perhaps the most notable and consequential feature of the international economic and political landscape to take shape in many part of the world since the end of the Cold War (Benny et al 2015a). As a worldwide phenomenon of increased interaction between actors (state and non-state) in economic, security, political, social and cultural spheres, regional integration has emerged in different stages in various parts of the world, with its most developed form in the European Union (hereafter, EU).…”

Is the ASEAN Economic Community Relevant To Gen Y Professionals? A Comparative Study on Attitudes and Participation of Young Professionals in Malaysia, Indonesia, and Vietnam on ASEAN Economic Integration

“…This objective is measured using three indicators of perceived relevancy. Most indicators of this variable were adapted from the questions on the 2009/2010 ASEAN public opinion study (Abdullah, Benny & Omar Din, 2010;Abdullah & Benny, 2013;Benny & Abdullah, 2011;Benny, Moorthy, Daud & Othman, 2015a, 2015bBenny, Rashila, & Tham 2014;Benny, Tham, & Rashila 2015;Moorthy & Benny, 2012a, 2012b, and have undergone a thorough examination in a series of focus group discussions. Details of the questions are presented in the appendix.…”