Cambodia's fractured crucible: Democratic development, political violence, and the contestation of public space

Neoliberal economics have emerged in the post-Cold War era as the predominant ideological tenet applied to the development of the Third World. However, for many Third World countries, the promise that the market will bring increased standards of living and emancipation from tyranny has been an empty one. Instead, the free market has increased the gap between rich and poor and unleashed a firestorm of social ills. In Cambodia, the promotion of unfettered marketisation is the foremost causal factor in the country's inability to consolidate democracy following a United Nations sponsored transition. Neoliberal policies further explain why authoritarianism remains the principal mode of governance among Cambodia's ruling elite, an inclination that is often elicited through the execution of state violence. In this study, neoliberalism is conceived as effectively acting to suffocate an indigenous burgeoning of democratic politics in Cambodia. Such asphyxiation is brought to bear under the neoliberal rhetoric of 'order' and 'stability', which can be read through Cambodia's (re)production of public space. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)...