A Battleground For Opposition: Exploring the Nature of Civil Society Under Burma's Military Rule

The term civil society started to gain worldwide prominence as a political force during the widespread collapse of authoritarianism in the mid-1970s and 1980s. With this extensive demise of dictatorships across the globe, Burma became an increasingly isolated regime in the wake of mass democratisation. This thesis will analyse civil society within Burma in a holistic manner, utilising three distinct levels of analysis. The theoretical framework will introduce conceptualisations of civil society in the context of varying political regimes such as authoritarianism and democracy, introducing prominent theories postulated by Antonio Gramsci and Alexis de Tocqueville. The general political history of Burma will be dissected through the lens of civil society, in order to examine the environment within which civil society organisations were forced to develop. Lastly, specific case studies on three civil society organisations operating during or as a result of heightened public discontent,...Show moreThe term civil society started to gain worldwide prominence as a political force during the widespread collapse of authoritarianism in the mid-1970s and 1980s. With this extensive demise of dictatorships across the globe, Burma became an increasingly isolated regime in the wake of mass democratisation. This thesis will analyse civil society within Burma in a holistic manner, utilising three distinct levels of analysis. The theoretical framework will introduce conceptualisations of civil society in the context of varying political regimes such as authoritarianism and democracy, introducing prominent theories postulated by Antonio Gramsci and Alexis de Tocqueville. The general political history of Burma will be dissected through the lens of civil society, in order to examine the environment within which civil society organisations were forced to develop. Lastly, specific case studies on three civil society organisations operating during or as a result of heightened public discontent, specifically during the 1988 and 2007 uprisings, will determine whether civil society in Burma was forced to develop a Gramscian frame or a Tocquevillean frame.Show less

Leiden University Student Repository

Documents

In Collections

A Battleground For Opposition: Exploring the Nature of Civil Society Under Burma's Military Rule