ABSTRACT
This chapter examines changing modes of political participation in regional governance. It provides the context for this transformation, describing the regional economic crisis and subsequent reforms to Association of Southeast Asian Nations' (ASEAN's) governance structure, notably the development of a regulatory framework. The chapter looks at the strategies employed to re-legitimize this political project, examining the participatory channels established to engage civil society organizations. It demonstrates how these channels have been structured to include groups that are amenable to the interests of ASEAN elites, and marginalize dissenting voices. The chapter highlights how ASEAN's reform is characteristic of neoliberal development policy, where liberalization and the deepening engagement of international capital and global markets has been pursued alongside measures to socially embed these processes and manage the conflicts generated. It argues that despite rhetoric of inclusion, this political project remains calibrated to defending powerful interests, thereby furthering, rather than challenging, regional inequalities.
