In the light of sweeping social and economic transformations across Asia, some political commentators have predicted that the expansion of civil society and the rapid development of liberal democracy will necessarily follow. But the scenarios may be more complex. This book reveals the diversity of political opposition in Asia, including analyses of the nature of new social movements and organisations outside institutional party politics which are contesting the exercise of state power.

Nine original case studies open up the varieties of political oppositions across Asia. Garry Rodan's hard-hitting analysis of the problems of current political theorising in relation to Asia sets the case studies firmly in the midst of the latest debates about democratisation. Political Oppositions in Industrialising Asia shatters complacent assumptions about the progress of liberal democracy.