Southeast Asia is something of an anomaly. Superficially, since the end of the Second World War it has enjoyed many of the conditions often thought necessary for capitalist democracy and stable government. In practice, however, governance in the region has often been characterised by authoritarianism and a pronounced tendency for the security sector to play a dominant role in political and economic life. This was exemplified most clearly by the 2006 military coup in Thailand and by a series of apparent coup attempts in the Philippines. According to one scholar, the region’s states have chosen ‘cohesion over consensus’ (Janowitz 1981: 16).