Abstract
This chapter seeks to explain several aspects of civil society organisations (CSOs) operating in Cambodia, namely: why some of them, including grassroots communities and NGOs, are more successful while others are not in achieving their demands; how these CSOs operate in Cambodia; and, is it a zero-sum game? The answers to these questions accentuate the employment of a mixture of concession and repression, the latter being the tools for the political survival of the ruler. In relative terms, the CSO movements examined here failed when they posed a threat to the regime, but otherwise achieved outcomes that were more successful. In this authoritarian regime, the balancing strategies of the patrons—manoeuvring between repression and concession, or a combination of the two—shaped the responses of the subordinate institutions, which subsequently influenced the different responses of the corporations. This balancing act relied on the regime’s prediction of risks and rewards with respect to its political durability. When the CSO movements tended to trigger a high risk to the survival of the regime, the subordinate institutions tended to employ more repressive measures. This model of a regime’s responses shaped, and continues to shape, the mixed outcomes—relative success or failure—of protest movements in Cambodia and elsewhere.
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Notes
- 1.
The state and government are seen as distinct, but in a regime where the ruler has clung onto power, these are almost the same, or one.
- 2.
Hun Sen’s speech during the inauguration of sugar processing factory in Chikor Leu on 25 Jan 2010. Retrieved on 07 December 2016 from http://cnv.org.kh/selected-comments-at-the-inauguration-of-the-sugar-factory-in-chikhor-leu-commune-sre-ambel-district-of-koh-kong-province/.
- 3.
The total number of ballots is different in each election, given the different number of voters appearing on the Election Day.
- 4.
Interview with village activist I, 18 November 2013.
- 5.
Interview with deputy provincial governor, 15 December 2013; Interview with member of parliament and former minister, 17 December 2013.
- 6.
To reiterate, the senator was operating agro-sugar industrial investments, which induced the resistance of the affected communities, not only in Koh Kong, but also in Kampong Speu and Oddar Meanchey provinces.
- 7.
Interview with member of parliament and former minister, 17 December 2013.
- 8.
Interview with village activist I, 18 November 2013.
- 9.
Interview with member of parliament and former minister, 17 December 2013.
- 10.
While the government and its subordinate institutions possess more power in mediating conflict, the power of these institutions can sometimes be offloaded by the companies.
- 11.
Interview with sugar company executive officer, 13 January 2014.
- 12.
Interview with sugar company executive officer, 13 January 2014.
- 13.
Interview with NGO executive director, 18 February 2018.
- 14.
Interview with executive director of a media NGO, 11 June 2020; interview with programme officer of UNESCO, 08 July 2020.
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Young, S. (2021). Civil Society Organisations Versus the Ruler: A Zero-Sum Game?. In: Strategies of Authoritarian Survival and Dissensus in Southeast Asia. Palgrave Series in Asia and Pacific Studies. Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-33-6112-6_5
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