Southeast Asia in Political Science: Theory, Region, and Qualitative Analysis (Contemporary Issues in Asia and Pacific) [Paperback]

Erik Kuhonta (Editor), Dan Slater (Editor), Tuong Vu (Editor)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0804761523 | ISBN-13: 978-0804761529 | Publication Date: July 25, 2008

This book argues that Southeast Asian political studies have made important contributions to theory building in comparative politics through a dialogue involving theory, area studies, and qualitative methodology. The book provides a state-of-the-art review of key topics in the field, including: state structures, political regimes, political parties, contentious politics, civil society, ethnicity, religion, rural development, globalization, and political economy. The chapters allow readers to trace the development of Southeast Asian politics and to address central debates in comparative politics. The book will serve as a valuable reference for undergraduate and graduate students, scholars of Southeast Asian politics, and comparativists engaged in theoretical debates at the heart of political science.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Southeast Asia in Political Science is successful on several grounds . . . the quality is high throughout, expertly edited for coherence and continuity. Invaluable for scholars of Southeast Asia, the volume also reaches out to scholars of other regions and comparative political scientists more broadly who might examine this book to reflect on the relationship between region, theory, and method and learn what Southeast Asia has to offer."—Ehito Kimura, Japanese Journal of Political Science.

"The scholarship here is excellent. These people know their region and its literature cold. This collection demonstrates the potential of qualitative Southeast Asian area studies to contribute to the broader accumulation of knowledge in political science, including the development of disciplinary theory." —Jack Snyder, Columbia University

"This collection consists of elegantly written, carefully crafted, intelligent, and interesting essays that will be of enormous value to scholars of the politics of Southeast Asia." —John Sidel, London School of Economics

About the Author

Erik Martinez Kuhonta is Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science at McGill University. Dan Slater is Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Chicago. Tuong Vu is Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Oregon, Eugene.

Product Details

• Paperback: 480 pages
• Publisher: Stanford University Press (July 25, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0804761523
• ISBN-13: 978-0804761529
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #499,515 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A much needed corrective to Southeast Asian Studies, February 28, 2010

By 

Enjolras (Washington, DC) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Southeast Asia in Political Science: Theory, Region, and Qualitative Analysis (Contemporary Issues in Asia and Pacific) (Paperback)

This is a much needed corrective to the Southeast Asian Studies literature. As the authors argue, Southeast Asia has much to offer the political science discipline. The region's natural diversity makes it a great laboratory for testing theories. However, Southeast Asia has been markedly absent in the political science debates over "big question" theories. Much of the Southeast Asia literature stands accused of focusing on individual countries in-depth, but not engaging the theoretical debates or utilization of cross-country comparative studies.

Southeast Asia in Political Science: Theory, Region, and Qualitative Analysis (Contemporary Issues in Asia and Pacific) serves both as a defense of the field and a clarion call for a more active engagement between Southeast Asia and political science. The articles, written by some of the brightest young minds in the field, review the literature and highlight its contributions to political theory - as well as where it falls short. They generally take an unabashedly qualitative approach, but also stress the need for this approach to engage more explicitly in hypothesis elaboration or testing.

I hope I don't sound too immodest in saying this, but this book preaches exactly what I have said privately to colleagues for years, and I'm glad to see so many prominent Southeast Asianists recognizing the problems. As much as I love Southeast Asia, it has certainly been punching below its weight. If political science actually is to be a "science," questions of methodology are going to keep coming up.

The individual articles are all well-written and the authors know their fields. The one critique I have with the book comes rather from what it fails to address. As anybody who works with Southeast Asia knows, comparative studies are particularly difficult in this region. Unlike Latin America, Western Europe, and the Middle East, etc., there is no lingua franca or common history. It is a huge investment to learn enough even about one country, much less two or three. The same diversity that makes it an ideal laboratory for comparative research, as the authors allege, also makes it difficult to control variables. Moreover, data is often hard to come by and inaccessible. I would like to have seen more explicit discussion of these challenges and how to overcome them. For the young Southeast Asia scholars like myself, that might mean addressing whether it is worth investing in one, two, or any languages? How many countries can researchers can reasonably expertise in before spreading oneself too thin? In addition to the theoretical questions, these questions need to be addressed in order to situate Southeast Asia scholars more firmly within political science.