ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews the key civil society theories and argues that Myanmar’s non-state actors played a limited and indirect role in shaping Myanmar’s post-2011 regime transition. The chapter examines how Myanmar society adapts to and struggles against Myanmar’s authoritarian rule. Tracing the evolution of associational life in Myanmar since the emergence of the State Law and Restoration Council, this chapter suggests that although civil society has been gradually developing since 1988, there is far more continuity than the so-called change that is taking place in Myanmar’s public sphere. The focus of this chapter is to rethink the way relations change between state and society under military rule. As such, the chapter argues that it was the military state’s domination over its disciplined society, rather than any bottom-up process of change, that allowed the military to introduce political reforms. The submission of Myanmar’s subdued, depoliticized society was a precondition that allowed the military to introduce its version of multiparty democracy, confident that the military would still be able to manage the transition and superimpose its agenda and vision upon the partially civilianized state.
