In the past month we have witnessed two illiberal regimes tested by vigorous domestic oppositions. Malaysia’s competitive authoritarian regime survived a stiff electoral test. Turkey’s electoral democratic regime is facing down protestors in Taksim Square. These events were closely followed…
Two lessons from my methods courses early in graduate school have been fundamental to the way I do political science. Lesson One. Data can never “speak for itself.” Only theory can tell you what what correlations mean, what empirical models…
Two summers ago we traveled as a family to Australia, where we were based in Canberra for five weeks. This month we are in Germany, based in Freiburg. We love to travel, but since having kids, we’ve noticed that travel…
Just three months ago, I announced the formation of the Southeast Asia Research Group. I’m happy to report that our inaugural meeting was held at Duke on May 24-25. By all accounts it was a smashing success, in terms of…
Around both Jakarta and Jogja on this recent trip, I saw the slang-y phrase “Mas Bro” everywhere. I’d seen it before, but it seems much more common this trip than before. “Mas Bro” is a uniquely Indonesian construction. It combines…
Four years and two days ago I reviewed three beers from the Storm Brewery in Bali. Yesterday, back at the same mall, I picked up two more from the Stark brewery (also in Bali). I also had to pick up…
Since early April I have written approximately 15,000 words on Malaysia’s 13th general election. That is the length of one and a half academic articles in the social sciences. It is about 1/4 of a decent sized academic book; as…
In my last post, outlined an interpretation of the results of GE13 as reflecting primarily an urban-rural divide, an explanation that has in various ways been articulated as different or even competing with the ethnicity-based analyses that I have offered….
Loyal readers know that I have been selling the ethnic politics angle on Malaysian politics pretty hard. There is another perspective, though. That perspective is about UMNO’s dominance as a machine party in the rural areas, and it comes most…
I am back in Indonesia for a brief trip to meet with officials at various government and non-government agencies. As part of my first set of meetings, I met with officials from BPS, the Indonesian Central Statistics agency. On several…
