ABSTRACT
Chapter 1, Introduction, provides readers with an initial discussion of Southeast Asia’s general history, geography, social patterns, and comparative similarities and differences that characterize and define the region’s political economy. Considering major influences and experiences, the chapter examines the historical arrival of major religious traditions, the rise of classical empires, and intervention by outside empires, colonial powers, and superpowers up through the twentieth century. The chapter also emphasizes the roles of traditional agrarian society, patron-clientism, and overseas Chinese communities in shaping social patterns in the region. An introduction of the “new international era” of the post-Cold War and its defining events that have affected the region is then included. The chapter also assesses the region’s economic globalization during the 1980s and 1990s, the 1997 Asian Economic Crisis, and more recent great power trade conflict. Three data tables provide readers comparative economic and development figures that highlight the vast socioeconomic differences across the region. Lastly, the chapter uses comparative regime analysis to categorize the regime type of each country’s system. This exercise is followed by a discussion of the serious limitations of such regime labels as a means to justify the comparative and context-specific political-economic analysis employed in the book’s country chapters that follow. A regional map of Southeast Asia is in included for geographical reference.
