ABSTRACT
This chapter begins by tracing some of the history of neoliberalism's diffusion into the region, highlighting the use of both 'shock' tactics and debt crisis as conduits to economic reform. It examines the limitations of democracy in the context of Southeast Asia's cultural proclivity for patronage and the ways in which this allows neoliberalism to be significantly manipulated into the service of elite interests. The chapter focuses on the authoritarian character that neoliberalism takes on within conditions of minimal accountability, a situation that is ripe for spurning social conflict. It emphasizes the hybridity of neoliberalism and the limitations of adopting a regional perspective to a concept that continues to shift as it moves through different political, cultural, social and institutional fields. Neoliberalism in Southeast Asia may have actually played a key role in consolidating authoritarianism even more as those left behind in the wave of policy reforms so frequently come into conflict with those reaping neoliberalism's rewards.
