ABSTRACT
Southeast Asia's experiences historically and comparatively force us to confront the region's variety and variability. This chapter offers an overview of the historical experiences and how economic, cultural, and institutional perspectives have helped to explain political change, democratization, and authoritarian durability in the region. Despite Southeast Asia's immense diversity, the region also shares elements of a common political history. The central political institution in comparative politics is the state, but also important are militaries, political parties, legislatures, and electoral institutions. Modernization approaches have had an ineffable imprint on the study of political change and democratization in the region. But modernization's version of political change contrasts with another economic approach, namely Marxist class-based explanations. In contrast to economic approaches, cultural approaches emphasize the importance of shared values, traditions, beliefs, and behaviors as a way of understanding how political change and continuity occur.
