Participation without Democracy

Over the past quarter century new ideologies of participation and representation have proliferated across democratic and non-democratic regimes. In Participation without Democracy, Garry Rodan breaks new conceptual ground in examining the social forces that underpin the emergence of these innovations in Southeast Asia. Rodan explains that there is, however, a central paradox in this recalibration of politics: expanded political participation is serving to constrain contestation more than to enhance it.

Participation without Democracy uses Rodan's long-term fieldwork in Singapore, the Philippines, and Malaysia to develop a modes of participation (MOP) framework that has general application across different regime types among both early-developing and late-developing capitalist societies. His MOP framework is a sophisticated, original, and universally relevant way of analyzing this phenomenon. Rodan uses MOP and his case studies to highlight important differences among social and political forces over the roles and forms of collective organization in political representation. In addition, he identifies and distinguishes hitherto neglected non-democratic ideologies of representation and their influence within both democratic and authoritarian regimes. Participation without Democracy suggests that to address the new politics that both provokes these institutional experiments and is affected by them we need to know who can participate, how, and on what issues, and we need to take the non-democratic institutions and ideologies as seriously as the democratic ones.

Garry Rodan is Professor of Politics and International Studies and Director of the Asia Research Centre, Murdoch University. He is a fellow of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia and is, most recently, coauthor of The Politics of Accountability in Southeast Asia.

Through a comprehensive study of the cases of Singapore, the Philippines, and Malaysia, Rodan presents a thorough illustration of how these Southeast Asian states were able to contain conflicts.

Rodan takes a critical look at attempts to strengthen public participation in government in Southeast Asia's hybrid regimes, which are neither fully democratic nor fully authoritarian.

In this excellent book, Garry Rodan develops a new approach on modes of political participation.

Provocative.... With its rich detail and critical perspective, this book seems something of a capstone as Rodan approaches formal retirement, bringing his rich, career-spanning material on Singapore as well as Malaysia into conversation with a similarly nuanced discussion of the Philippines, and weaving together theoretical threads.... Rodan's provocative exegesis is not just a good read, but a call to rethink how we study as well as pursue participation, representation, and elite-challenging reform.

In this important work, the author offers a detailed analysis of a political paradox which he sees reflected in the experience of Southeast Asia: expanded political participation can actually serve more to constrain political contestation than to enhance it.

This book is rich in thought-provoking theoretical and empirical points. It makes an important contribution to the literature on the complex relationship between markets and democratization, specifically by demonstrating that the former does not necessarily entail advances of the latter.... Provides a powerful new lens that will help the next generation of analysts make sense of the region.

Participation without Democracy is a book that deserves to be read far more widely than in that circle of scholars whose primary concern is the politics of Southeast Asia. It is a book that provides critical guidance in understanding, not so much democratisation, but the wider reconfiguration of politics currently underway in the contemporary age.

Allen Hicken, Ronald and Eileen Weiser Professor of Emerging Democracies, University of Michigan:

Garry Rodan's book is theoretically innovative, empirically rich, and overall a pleasure to read. Rodan's biggest contribution is the development of the twin concepts of Ideologies of Political Representation and Modes of Participation. These new tools help us understand why states facing similar pressures from capitalist development opt for different combinations of formal and informal institutions.

Lee Jones, Reader in International Politics, Queen Mary University of London:

This exceptional book makes an outstanding contribution to the literature on democratization, authoritarian resilience, and Asian politics. Rodan has developed his ‘modes of participation’ framework to its explanatory peak, making Participation without Democracy essential reading for students of democratization everywhere.