Introduction

Pluralist politics and mass mobilization did not end in Malaysia, the Philippines, and Indonesia with the conflicts discussed in the previous chapter. A second wave of contentious politics would crash over all three countries beginning in the mid-1960s, helping to justify elite projects to construct new authoritarian Leviathans. These new regimes would not simply fail to meet minimal requirements of procedural democracy; they would actively endeavor to demobilize popular sectors through a significant increase in repression and a revamping of centralized state power, with no promise that a return to democracy was forthcoming in the foreseeable future.

These regimes would vary widely in their durability. Ferdinand Marcos would fail to construct a viable authoritarian Leviathan and be overthrown in 1986; Suharto would undertake much more extensive institution-building and survive politically until 1998; and the UMNO-led regime in Malaysia would leverage its command over Southeast Asia's strongest authoritarian Leviathan (save Singapore's) to endure in power until today. Chapter 7 will explore these regimes’ divergent fates during times of political crisis; Chapter 6 will examine the strength of elite coalitions before those crises struck.