Two Concepts of Federalism in Myanmar: How the 2021 Military Coup Reshaped Political Discourse and Opposition Institutions
Aung Kaung Myat,
Roman David and
Ian Holliday
Publius: The Journal of Federalism, 2023, vol. 53, issue 2, 278-300
Abstract:
Consensus democracies outperform their majoritarian counterparts, but reform is difficult. From an institutional perspective, a dominant majority can block change. From a political culture perspective, democracy is endogenous to context. However, critical junctures can alter not only political configuration but also political culture. In Myanmar, the Bamar majority split following the 2021 military coup. One fragment aligned with coup leaders. Another, certainly larger, joined ethnic minorities in opposition and resistance. Did the coup inspire a shift toward consensus politics? This article looks before and after the coup at peak institutions and Facebook posts. Opposition institutions in the 2020s are more diverse than cabinets led by the National League for Democracy in the 2010s. Political discourse has shifted from democratic federalism, with a focus on centralized control, to federal democracy, with a centrifugal dynamic. These findings reveal significant change in a centralized authoritarian state long controlled by the Bamar majority.
Date: 2023
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:
Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/publius/pjac041 (application/pdf)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.
Export reference: BibTeX
RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan)
HTML/Text
Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:oup:publus:v:53:y:2023:i:2:p:278-300.
Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://academic.oup.com/journals
Access Statistics for this article
Publius: The Journal of Federalism is currently edited by Paul Nolette and Philip Rocco
More articles in Publius: The Journal of Federalism from CSF Associates Inc. Oxford University Press, Great Clarendon Street, Oxford OX2 6DP, UK.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Oxford University Press ().