Aurel Croissant

Universität Heidelberg · Institute of Political Science

This book examines the political role of the military in “dictators’ endgames”: large-scale nonviolent mass protests in autocracies that demand regime change or the regime leader’s removal from office. It addresses the question why some militaries defend an embattled autocrat by violently cracking down on the protestors, whereas others side with th...

This study presents a comprehensive conceptualization of democratic resilience as regime performance and regime capacity. It introduced the Resilience Capacity (ResCap)-Index and combines different approaches of measuring autocratization to capture varieties of resilience performance in democratic regimes. The usefulness of the concept of democrati...

The paper presents the first comprehensive analysis of all episodes of backsliding in democratic regimes in Indo-Pacific Asia from 1950-2022. Based on the experience of this sample of cases, this paper aims to generate insights into why some Asian democracies are more resilient to this gradual decline in the quality of democratic institutions. Usin...

This chapter provides an overview of the identification and measurement of autocratiza-tion episodes and some empirical patterns. We first review existing approaches to identifying autocratization episodes and then describe the approach used in the Episodes of Regime Transformation (ERT) dataset, operationalized using data from the Varieties of Dem...

Recent years have seen a remilitarisation of many countries in South, Southeast, and Northeast Asia. While open coups remain an exception, there is a worrying trend among Asian nations of the military's influence over politics, society, and the economy gradually increasing. This raises concerns about the prospects for liberal democracy, just socioe...

This paper examines the relationship between the militarization of COVID-19 state responses and autocratization in eight Asia-Pacific and Latin American countries. Utilizing a conceptual framework focusing on COVID-19-related military missions and operations, we present two key findings. First, our research demonstrates significant variation in the...

The civil-military relations of many Asian countries are subjectto important changes. In authoritarian, democratized, and autocratizing countries in South, Southeast and Northeast Asia, praetorianism—once prevalent in the region—has been in decline since the late 1980s, though it is still relevant in a number of countries. The erosion of praetorian...

In this article we present the novel M3-dataset. This global dataset brings together 30 exisiting and newly developed indicators and a total of 140,000 observations on three dimensions of material, political and societal militarization from 1990-2020. We introduce a novel, multidimensional concept of militarization, explain the construction of the...

This study asks if a decline of democratic regime attributes affects the volume of domestic terrorism. We argue that different forms of autocratization may stimulate or suppress terrorist activities. Democratic backsliding may dampen domestic terrorism, while autocratic consolidation may make autocracies more vulnerable to terrorism. This study emp...

This book examines the conditions under which new democracies succeed or fail in establishing firm and lasting civilian control of the military. It introduces a multidimensional conceptual framework to evaluate the degree of civilian control in new democracies and to trace developments over time. The theory of civilian control in new democracies pr...

This book examines the conditions under which new democracies succeed or fail in establishing firm and lasting civilian control of the military. It introduces a multidimensional conceptual framework to evaluate the degree of civilian control in new democracies and to trace developments over time. The theory of civilian control in new democracies pr...

This book examines the conditions under which new democracies succeed or fail in establishing firm and lasting civilian control of the military. It introduces a multidimensional conceptual framework to evaluate the degree of civilian control in new democracies and to trace developments over time. The theory of civilian control in new democracies pr...

This book examines the conditions under which new democracies succeed or fail in establishing firm and lasting civilian control of the military. It introduces a multidimensional conceptual framework to evaluate the degree of civilian control in new democracies and to trace developments over time. The theory of civilian control in new democracies pr...

This book examines the conditions under which new democracies succeed or fail in establishing firm and lasting civilian control of the military. It introduces a multidimensional conceptual framework to evaluate the degree of civilian control in new democracies and to trace developments over time. The theory of civilian control in new democracies pr...

This book examines the conditions under which new democracies succeed or fail in establishing firm and lasting civilian control of the military. It introduces a multidimensional conceptual framework to evaluate the degree of civilian control in new democracies and to trace developments over time. The theory of civilian control in new democracies pr...

This book examines the conditions under which new democracies succeed or fail in establishing firm and lasting civilian control of the military. It introduces a multidimensional conceptual framework to evaluate the degree of civilian control in new democracies and to trace developments over time. The theory of civilian control in new democracies pr...

Die regional-vergleichende Studie von Aurel Croissant und Ariam del Roble Macias Herrera untersucht, ob mit der Bekämpfung der Covid-19 Panedmie auch ein größerer Einfluss des Militärs einherging. Die zivil-militärischen Beziehungen sind ein neuralgischer Punkt in den lateinamerikanischen Demokratien und in einer Notlage wie der Covid-19-Krise droh...

Dieses Kapitel analysiert das politische System des malaiisch-islamischen Sultanats Brunei Darussalam. Zunächst wird die historische Entwicklung von der Kolonialzeit bis zur Unabhängigkeit des Kleinstaates im Jahre 1984 dargestellt und die Struktur des bruneiischen Rentenstaats ausgeleuchtet, dessen Wohlstand hauptsächlich auf dem Export von Erdöl...

This chapter provides a systematic overview of the political actors, institutions, and dynamics of Thailand’s political system and summarizes its history and recent developments. Despite some initial progress in the 1990s, Thailand’s process of democratization regressed in the 2000s, a process that cumulated in the collapse of civilian government a...

As a landlocked country with a sparsely populated hinterland, politicized ethnic identities, and a history of a weak central power, Laos struggles with unfavorable circumstances for economic development and is a case of peripheral socialism. Since the mid-1980s, the LPRP has de facto abandoned its socialist experiment and is searching for new sourc...

The Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste is the newest state in Southeast Asia. After more than two decades of Indonesian occupation, the country transitioned to independence and democratic government under the aegis of the United Nations. Since it gained independence in 2002, the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste has strived to create a democratic...

The Republic of Indonesia is the world's largest archipelagic state. It is the most populous Muslim-majority country in the world with a population of more than 250 million and one of Southeast Asia’s ethnically most heterogeneous societies. It is also the largest economy in the region and is regarded as one of only a few relatively stable and well...

The Republic of the Union of Myanmar, known as Burma prior to 1989, is one of the ethnically most heterogeneous societies in Southeast Asia with 135 officially recognized nationalities. Two inextricably linked challenges characterize politics and society in Myanmar since independence in 1948. The first one concerns state-building and nation-buildin...

This chapter provides a systematic overview of the political actors, institutions, and dynamics of Brunei’s political system and summarizes recent developments. As the only ruling monarchy in Southeast Asia, the Sultanate of Brunei seems a political anachronism in the region. Yet it is also a beacon of political stability in Southeast Asia. The roy...

The Kingdom of Cambodia has experienced a threefold transformation in the last thirty years: from civil war to post-war reconstruction; from a socialist one-party state to multiparty autocracy; and from a centrally planned economy to a market economy. However, most political scientists seem to agree that Cambodia witnessed creeping autocratization...

Southeast Asia defies any straightforward generalization. Even more so than in other world regions, the manifold political, economic, cultural, historical, and social differences among the countries in the region present political scientists with a quasi-natural laboratory. Levels of socioeconomic modernization, paths to state and nation-building,...

This chapter provides a systematic overview of the political actors, institutions, and dynamics of Malaysia’s political system and summarizes its history and recent developments. Compared to most other political systems in Southeast Asia, Malaysian politics since 1957 has exhibited an unusually high degree of political and social stability. The eli...

This final chapter discusses trends in democratization and autocratization in Southeast Asia in the late 20th and early 21st century, the structural vulnerabilities of democracy as well causes of autocratization as well as features of autocratic consolidation in the region. While there were several democratic transitions in the region between 1986...

Vietnam is a communist one-party regime in transition. With the implementation of doi moi, the Communist Party of Vietnam replaced a centrally planned economy with a “socialist-oriented market economy”. The transition from a fully planned economy to a mixed economy generated dynamic economic growth and socioeconomic modernization that puts the comm...

This chapter provides a systematic overview of the political actors, institutions, and dynamics of the Philippine political system and summarizes its history and recent developments. Despite the 30 years of democratic politics following the People’s Power Revolution in 1986, the political system of the Philippines remains a highly defective democra...

This chapter provides a systematic overview of the political actors, institutions, and dynamics of Singapore’s political system and summarizes its history and recent developments. The political system of Singapore appears to contradict conventional wisdom in political science. Despite a very high level of social and economic modernization, a small...

The purpose of this chapter is to connect the insights derived from the previous chapters and provide a comparative perspective. The manifold political, economic, cultural, historical, and social differences among the 11 countries in the region defy any straightforward generalization, even more so than in other world regions. Still, a comparative a...

Dieses Buch bietet eine Einführung in die vergleichende Analyse der politischen Systeme in der Region. Die analytische Perspektive ist auf die politischen Strukturen, Akteure und Prozesse in den elf Staaten gerichtet. Es werden sowohl Demokratien als auch Autokratien untersucht. Die Analyse der aktuellen Strukturen und Entwicklungen ist eingebettet...

This forthcoming book examines the conditions under which new democracies succeed or fail in establishing firm and lasting civilian control of the military. It introduces a multi-dimensional conceptual framework to evaluate the degree of civilian control in new democracies and to trace developments over time. The theory of civilian control in new d...

This second edition of Comparative Politics of Southeast Asia offers a revised and extended update of the textbook published in 2018. The textbook provides a comprehensive introduction to the political systems of all ASEAN countries and Timor-Leste from a comparative perspective. It investigates the political institutions, actors, and processes in...

This forthcoming, edited volume comprises 13 chapters, written by 21 authors from Asia, the South Pacific, North America and Europe. The volume investigates (i) the effectiveness of governments’ COVID responses and (ii) the effects of the COVID crisis on the quality of democracy in the region. The volume does not only tackle the immediate question...

This paper provides a critical assessment of the Sustainable Governance Indicators (SGI) and compares it with other prominent indices that address specific components of governance: V-Dem, WGI, and BTI. We offer a comparative assessment of content validity of these governance measures, their data generation processes , and their convergent validity...

It is a long-standing belief in democracy studies that configurations of well-institutionalized and both moderately polarized and fractionalized party systems promote the effectiveness and efficiency of democratic institutions and thereby contribute to the functioning and legitimacy of the democratic system at large. At the same time, scholars freq...

Autocratization affects democracies and autocracies with gradual setbacks in democratic qualities. The current debate on autocratization is lacking a comprehensive and systematic overview of different autocratization concepts and empirical measures. Addressing the gap, this research note identifies and discusses different strategies of operationali...

Given Asia-Pacific’s diversity and the large variance of potentially relevant causal factors, the region presents social scientists with a natural laboratory to test competing theories of democratic erosion, decay and revival and to identify new patterns and relationships. This introductory article offers a brief review of the relevant literature a...

S u s t a i n a b l e Go v e r n a n c e I n d i c a t o r s 2 0 2 0 J a p a n R e p o r t We r n e r P a s c h a , P a t r i c k K ö l l n e r , A u r e l C r o i s s a n t (C o o r d i n a t o r)

Around the globe, democracy is ailing. In the past 15 years or so, an increasing number of democracies worldwide have suffered from gradual erosion and decay. According to the most recent Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem) report, 1 examples can be found in most regions of the world including the United States and the European Union, where Hungary's Vi...

Stateness and Democracy in East Asia - edited by Aurel Croissant May 2020

Stateness and Democracy in East Asia - edited by Aurel Croissant May 2020

Stateness and Democracy in East Asia - edited by Aurel Croissant May 2020

This chapter examines the possible causal relationship between form of rule and economic development for 20 countries in South Asia, Southeast Asia and Northeast Asia. We approach the topic in four steps. Section 2 discusses the extant literature on the development-democracy nexus. Section 3 then presents our key concepts, data and method. In Secti...

Worldwide, democracy is under pressure. The slow but steady erosion of democracy in many places in the last decade seems to accelerate since the outbreak of the Corona pandemic. As political leaders seize powers to ght the virus, worries grow if they readily will give up accrued powers once the crisis eventually subsides. In addition, the uneven pe...

Cambridge Core - South-East Asian Government, Politics and Policy - Stateness and Democracy in East Asia - edited by Aurel Croissant

Autocratization affects democracies and autocracies with gradual setbacks in democratic qualities. In the current debate on autocratization, a comprehensive overview of different autocratization concepts and empirical measures is still lacking. Addressing the gap, this research note provides new insights on how to conceptualize and measure autocrat...

chapter in a forthcoming book on party finance and political corruption. this publication is presents preliminary work from a work package on political finance and political corruption.

Political violence is everywhere. But how does it emerge and what can be done about it? This book addresses the diversity of violence in South Asia, South East Asia and Western Europe. It examines the various forms of ideological backgrounds, structural conditions, relations and aims of non-state actors who are involved in violence in these regions...

S u s t a i n a b l e Go v e r n a n c e I n d i c a t o r s 2 0 1 9 J a p a n R e p o r t We r n e r P a s c h a , P a t r i c k K ö l l n e r , A u r e l C r o i s s a n t (C o o r d i n a t o r)

This book explores the historical origins, contemporary dynamics and future challenges of social cohesion in South, Southeast and East Asia-one of the most dynamic and at the same time heterogeneous regions in the world, in terms of economic, political and human development. The comparative case studies in this volume develop a better understanding...

In 2018, ever-incumbent Prime Minister Hun Sen scored a landslide victory in the Cambodian general elections. Three factors in particular explain this outcome. First, the elimination of the main opposition party, whose strategy of a peaceful election boycott failed. Second, favorable economic conditions and government handouts of spoils to constitu...

S u s t a i n a b l e Go v e r n a n c e I n d i c a t o r s 2 0 1 8 J a p a n R e p o r t We r n e r P a s c h a , P a t r i c k K ö l l n e r , A u r e l C r o i s s a n t (C o o r d i n a t o r) Download the 2018 Japan report at: http://www.sgi-network.org/docs/2018/country/SGI2018_Japan.pdf