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Southeast
Asian Middle Classes: Prospects for Social Change and Democratisation.
2001. ISBN 967-942-548-7 302pgs.
RM30.00. Abdul Rahman Embong
Modernisation theory has it that as a country undergoes modernisation and as the middle class develops, there is a greater tendency towards universalism and democracy. This theory based on the Western European model sees modernisation and democracy as inseparable twins. Nevertheless, experiences abstracted and generalised as universal are often conjunctural and culture-specific. Unlike in Western Europe, the rise of the Southeast Asian middle classes was part of post-independence capitalist economic development which in the main was state-driven. The middle classes created under these circumstances tend to be servile and beholden to the state, with neither the heroism, nor the democratisation and modernity proclivity of their European counterpart. However, as recent events in Southeast Asia have shown, sections of the middle classes in these countries have come to the forefront together with the broad masses in the struggle against authoritarian rule and for democracy. The growth of middle class led civil society organisations and alternative media namely the Internet is very significant in creating spaces for democratic participation and discourses on affairs of society. Contrary to the characteristics of their birth and expansion, members of this class have become a force for change and democratisation, although admittedly, they are more advanced in some countries than in others. How the middle class struggles and demands in short, the dynamics of state-class relations - constitute the overall theme of this book. ABDUL RAHMAN EMBONG, Ph.D., is Professor in Sociology of Development at the Institute of Malaysian and International Studies (IKMAS), Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia. Another of his book with UKM Press is Southeast Asia into the Twenty First Century (2000). |
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