Civil Society Between Repression and Cooptation: Adjusting to Shrinking Space in Cambodia
Scholarship on autocratisation has investigated the strategies of cooptation and repression that autocratic and autocratising regimes employ to maintain and enhance their power. However, it has barely explored how civil society reacts to these strategies. Concurrently, the existing research on civil...
| Main Author: | |
|---|---|
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
SAGE Publishing
2023-12-01
|
| Series: | Journal of Current Southeast Asian Affairs |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1177/18681034231214397 |
| _version_ | 1797454493184425984 |
|---|---|
| author | Jasmin Lorch |
| author_facet | Jasmin Lorch |
| author_sort | Jasmin Lorch |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Scholarship on autocratisation has investigated the strategies of cooptation and repression that autocratic and autocratising regimes employ to maintain and enhance their power. However, it has barely explored how civil society reacts to these strategies. Concurrently, the existing research on civil society and social movements mostly suggests that civil society organisations (CSOs) will either resist autocratic repression or disband because of it, thereby often neglecting the possibility of CSOs’ adaptation to autocratic constraints. In this article, I seek to bridge these theoretical gaps with empirical evidence from Cambodia. I argue that for CSOs that operate in autocratic and autocratising regimes allowing themselves to become coopted by the regime can constitute a deliberate strategy to avoid repression, secure their survival, and exert social and political influence. However, while this strategy often seems to be effective in allowing CSOs to survive and escape large-scale repression, its success in enabling civil society to exert social and political influence remains limited, owing to structural limitations embedded in the autocratic context. Moreover, CSOs’ acceptance of cooptation often enhances divisions within civil society. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-09T15:38:03Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-7ad002d67aeb48be84f0a5f08fd60c3f |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1868-1034 1868-4882 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-09T15:38:03Z |
| publishDate | 2023-12-01 |
| publisher | SAGE Publishing |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Journal of Current Southeast Asian Affairs |
| spelling | doaj.art-7ad002d67aeb48be84f0a5f08fd60c3f2023-11-25T19:33:56ZengSAGE PublishingJournal of Current Southeast Asian Affairs1868-10341868-48822023-12-014210.1177/18681034231214397Civil Society Between Repression and Cooptation: Adjusting to Shrinking Space in CambodiaJasmin Lorch0 Institute for Asian and African Studies, Humboldt University of Berlin, Berlin, GermanyScholarship on autocratisation has investigated the strategies of cooptation and repression that autocratic and autocratising regimes employ to maintain and enhance their power. However, it has barely explored how civil society reacts to these strategies. Concurrently, the existing research on civil society and social movements mostly suggests that civil society organisations (CSOs) will either resist autocratic repression or disband because of it, thereby often neglecting the possibility of CSOs’ adaptation to autocratic constraints. In this article, I seek to bridge these theoretical gaps with empirical evidence from Cambodia. I argue that for CSOs that operate in autocratic and autocratising regimes allowing themselves to become coopted by the regime can constitute a deliberate strategy to avoid repression, secure their survival, and exert social and political influence. However, while this strategy often seems to be effective in allowing CSOs to survive and escape large-scale repression, its success in enabling civil society to exert social and political influence remains limited, owing to structural limitations embedded in the autocratic context. Moreover, CSOs’ acceptance of cooptation often enhances divisions within civil society.https://doi.org/10.1177/18681034231214397 |
| spellingShingle | Jasmin Lorch Civil Society Between Repression and Cooptation: Adjusting to Shrinking Space in Cambodia Journal of Current Southeast Asian Affairs |
| title | Civil Society Between Repression and Cooptation: Adjusting to Shrinking Space in Cambodia |
| title_full | Civil Society Between Repression and Cooptation: Adjusting to Shrinking Space in Cambodia |
| title_fullStr | Civil Society Between Repression and Cooptation: Adjusting to Shrinking Space in Cambodia |
| title_full_unstemmed | Civil Society Between Repression and Cooptation: Adjusting to Shrinking Space in Cambodia |
| title_short | Civil Society Between Repression and Cooptation: Adjusting to Shrinking Space in Cambodia |
| title_sort | civil society between repression and cooptation adjusting to shrinking space in cambodia |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1177/18681034231214397 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT jasminlorch civilsocietybetweenrepressionandcooptationadjustingtoshrinkingspaceincambodia |