Limited Liberalism

This chapter focuses on puzzling issues arising from the explorations undertaken in preceding chapters, and captures them in the notion of limited liberalism. It presents this concept as a critical analytical tool for understanding the nature of Myanmar’s transition. It opens by describing some contradictions that emerged from our exploration of Myanmar in reform, sets them in comparative perspective, and probes their limits or boundaries. It then devises the concept of limited liberalism, exposes its assumptions, and examines it as a property of the political culture of hybrid regimes. Finally, it returns to empirical study to investigate liberalism, illiberalism, and limited liberalism in our case. It concludes by using limited liberalism to chart the prospects for liberal democracy in Myanmar.

Transitional Justice

Myanmar’s half-century of authoritarianism from 1962 to 2011 left a bitter legacy of gross human rights abuse and other historical injustice. One issue widely held by researchers to be a contributing factor to establishing a human rights culture and promoting democratization is dealing with the past. In this context, the chapter explores the demand for transitional justice in Myanmar, drawing on interviews with former political prisoners, surveys, survey experiments, and secondary sources. It reviews factors commonly associated with demand for transitional justice, examines the historical and political determinants of transitional justice in Myanmar, probes the authors’ surveys to investigate popular demand for transitional justice, uses interviews with former political prisoners to assess victims’ needs and their conception of justice, and connects a victim-centred approach with popular demand by examining support for transitional justice in light of experimental evidence simulating real-life resolution of historical injustice.

The People and the Constitution

Myanmar’s transition is taking place within a constitutional setting devised by the preceding junta and reflecting a military reading of rule by the people, termed discipline-flourishing democracy. This chapter examines the extent to which the country’s constitutional system is an obstacle to greater democratization, the degree to which its institutions are viewed by the public as legitimate, and the intensity with which the public demands deeper political change. First, it traces the roots of constitutionalism in Myanmar. Second, it evaluates fundamental aspects of the current constitution, focusing on provisions for majority rule and a separation of powers. Third, it draws on survey data to investigate popular assessments of the transitional political system and aspirations for democracy. Fourth, it assesses prescribed methods for forming the legislature, and uses a survey experiment to isolate popular preferences for generating an assembly fitting standards of liberal democracy, hybridity, and military rule. Finally, it turns to the executive and explores perceptions of constitutional restrictions imposed on the presidency.

Historical Context

Democratization necessarily takes place within a specific national context marked by prior historical experience. This chapter examines historical factors in the Myanmar case as a means of understanding the social and political underpinnings of the current transition. It focuses on legacies of colonization by Britain in the middle of the nineteenth century, a growing nationalist struggle and devastating warfare in the first half of the twentieth century, shifting forms of civil conflict since independence, a phase of liberal democracy in the initial years of state sovereignty, and military-backed or military-directed authoritarianism for nearly half a century thereafter. It looks particularly at the impact of successive colonial, democratic, and military regimes, and at crosscutting legacies of repression, militarization of ethnic relations, and social exclusion of the Rohingya Muslim minority.

Conclusion

This chapter returns to the book’s core research question: what are the prospects for liberal democracy in Myanmar? It reviews answers generated by the six preceding substantive chapters, and pulls them together into a conclusion. It notes that the political situation inside the country is better at the end of the 2010s than it was at the beginning, with solid popular support for the shift away from authoritarianism. It further notes that opportunities for progress remain available within the political culture and society. In particular, the large cohort of NLD supporters has liberal inclinations that could be developed further. In a still rather traditional society, however, hierarchy continues to dominate. This places the onus on leadership, which to date has been lacking. It concludes that further movement away from the semi-democracy of Myanmar’s current hybrid regime towards one that can fairly be labelled liberal democracy is likely to be difficult, though not impossible.

Introduction

In the 2010s, Myanmar embarked on a transition away from half a century of authoritarian rule. In the process, however, positive signs of democratization contrasted with negative political developments, including ethnic cleansing of Rohingya Muslims. Deep challenges of political democratization and transformation of the political culture thereby emerged. These challenges generate the central research question of this book: what are the prospects for liberal democracy in Myanmar? This introductory chapter situates this research question in the context of the democratization literature, describes the survey and interview methodology used in the search for an answer, and outlines the plan of the book.

Group Relations and Tolerance

Respect for ethnic and religious minorities is widely considered essential for creation of a stable democracy. In the context of Myanmar’s transition, this chapter assesses group relations, investigates majority and minority perceptions of other groups, evaluates constitutional provisions on equality and government policy on citizenship and interfaith marriage, assesses tolerance of four political, religious, ethnic, and national groups, and looks at the roots of intolerance towards the Rohingya. It triangulates the authors’ interviews with members of ethnic minorities and politicians, surveys, and survey experiments, with secondary survey data and historical resources. It reveals generally positive group relations, which are however clouded by xenophobic and Islamophobic tendencies and outright rejection of the Rohingya.

The Theatre of Democratization

This chapter examines key protagonists of the transition, focusing on their agendas and popular support. It looks at the military and the USDP as its extended political wing, the NLD and Aung San Suu Kyi as its overwhelmingly dominant leader, activist monks, ethnic parties and armed groups, and leading political forces in civil society. After a brief theoretical introduction, it evaluates each set of actors through an analysis of relevant records, attitudes, evolution, and reception by the people. It finds that the country’s political spectrum has a triangular shape with a balancing role for monks, whose prominent role in society allows them to challenge both the illiberal attitudes professed by the military and its backers, and the moderately liberal attitudes held by Aung San Suu Kyi and NLD supporters.