ABSTRACT

This introduction presents an overview of key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book discusses narratives in which elite-level relations and social coalitions are omitted, producing accounts that are solely composed of historical, structural, developmental, transitional, and institutional factors. It presents a framework that centres on elite-level relations and social coalitions. In the Philippines, contextual factors and regime outcomes yield much less of a puzzle. These factors rightly predict that democracy will persist, though in diminished form. In contemporary Southeast Asia, where contextual factors are favourable and democratic procedures are present, ambitious elites mobilize social coalitions through populist appeals in hopes of gaining electoral victories and 'narrow' political ascendancy. A range of contextual factors is typically used in explicating democracy's fate - including historical legacies, social structures, developmental levels, transitional processes, and institutional designs.