Institutional Change in Southeast Asiaexamines the institutional changes taking place in, and challenges facing, the region since 1997. The book focuses on determinants to the adjustments and on implementations of the reforms. It also describes various differences in the reform process between countries in the region. Southeast Asia's economic development over the last decades has been impressive. Most of the region achieved consistently high growth rates accompanied by significant structural transformation and industrialization, poverty alleviation and improvements in their overall standard of living as indicated by such social indicators as greater longevity, more widespread delivery of basic education and lower infant mortality rates. However, the crisis that struck Southeast Asia in 1997 had severe economic, social and political consequences in the region. It also threw into doubt the future economic prosperity of the countries in Southeast Asia and raised intriguing questions about the quality of their institutions and their approach to economic development. Sjöholm and Tongzon argue that the economies of Southeast Asia need to reform their institutions if the previous rapid development is to continue. The institutional weaknesses have been addressed to different degrees and with different success in the affected countries. Against the backdrop of Southeast Asia's importance in the world economy, it is hardly possible to overestimate the need to understand this process of change.

Scholars have long studied how institutions emerge and become stable. But why do institutions sometimes break down? In this book, Michael L. Ross explores the breakdown of the institutions that govern natural resource exports in developing states. He shows that these institutions often break down when states receive positive trade shocks - unanticipated windfalls. Drawing on the theory of rent-seeking, he suggests that these institutions succumb to a problem he calls 'rent-seizing' - the predatory behavior of politicians who seek to supply rent to others, and who purposefully dismantle institutions that restrain them. Using case studies of timber booms in Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines, he shows how windfalls tend to trigger rent-seizing activities that may have disastrous consequences for state institutions, and for the government of natural resources. More generally, he shows how institutions can collapse when they have become endogenous to any rent-seeking process.

This collection examines change within the major regional organisations of the Asia Pacific: The Asian Development Bank (ADB), the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) and the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF). It has two simultaneous foci: the nature of institutional change in regional organisations, and the process of regionalism in the Asia Pacific. It combines the views of both officials and practitioners, providing new insights into both its major questions.

This work scrutinizes the role of institutional change, with special reference to Southeast Asia. It suggests that the nature of institutional arrangements such as households, community groups, firms and formal governance systems can significantly affect human activity and economic success.

Regional security institutions play a significant role in shaping the behavior of existing and rising regional powers by nurturing security norms and rules, monitoring state activities, and sometimes imposing sanctions, thereby formulating the configuration of regional security dynamics. Yet, their security roles and influence do not remain constant. Their raison d’etre, objectives, and functions experience sporadic changes, and some institutions upgrade military functions for peacekeeping operations, while others limit their functions to political and security dialogues. The question is: why and how do these variances in institutional change emerge? This book explores the mechanisms of institutional change, focusing on regional security institutions led by non-great powers. It constructs a theoretical model for institutional change that provides a new understanding of their changing roles in regional security, which has yet to be fully explored in the International Relations field. In so doing, the book illuminates why, when, and how each organization restructures its role, function, and influence. Using case studies of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), and the Organization of African Unity (OAU)/ African Union (AU), it also sheds light on similarities and differences in institutional change between regional security institutions.

This book explores how public organizations and not-for-profit organizations (NPO) can be more collaborative, innovative and effective in solving social issues in both developing and developed countries. “Social innovation,” led by social entrepreneurs and/or social enterprises, emerged in the late 1990s, and spread in 2000s. As the West faced management failures, demand increased for corporations to take on more social responsibility. Based on intensive research on social innovation processes at the municipal and the community level in Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam, and Japan, the book analyses the factors that affected the most effective and efficient social innovations.

The establishment of electoral systems in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan presents both a complex set of empirical puzzles and a theoretical challenge. Why did three states with similar cultural, historical, and structural legacies establish such different electoral systems? How did these distinct outcomes result from strikingly similar institutional design processes? Explaining these puzzles requires understanding not only the outcome of institutional design but also the intricacies of the process that led to this outcome. Moreover, the transitional context in which these three states designed new electoral rules necessitates an approach that explicitly links process and outcome in a dynamic setting. This book provides such an approach. Finally, it both builds on the key insights of the dominant approaches to explaining institutional origin and change and transcends these approaches by moving beyond the structure versus agency debate.

The countries of Central Asia are increasingly the focus of intense international attention due to their geopolitical and economic importance as well as their unsettled transition processes. The region faced enormous challenges when the Soviet Union disintegrated, and this book focuses on the reforms of the institutional environment that have been largely neglected. Through an interdisciplinary approach, the book explores key aspects of institution building as well as economic and political governance in Central Asia. Contributors from a variety of disciplines, such as economics, political economy, political science, sociology, law, and ethnology, investigate the challenges of institutional transition in a non-democratic region. The book discusses how the lack of effective institution building as well as rule enforcement in the economic and political realms represents one of the key weaknesses and drawbacks of transition, and goes on to look at how crafting market institutions will be of utmost importance in the years ahead. Making an important contribution to understanding of political-economic developments in Central Asia, this book is of interest to students and scholars of political economy, comparative economics, development studies and Central Asian studies.