The global trend of democratic backsliding has reshaped politics around the world, from the United States to Indonesia. Throughout Southeast Asia, a region long marked by contestation between authoritarian and democratic politics, contemporary authoritarian practices interact with local histories to generate distinctly new forms of politics—from penal populism in the Philippines to Burma’s most recent military coup. This virtual roundtable on authoritarianism brings together four experts on the politics of Myanmar, Indonesia, Thailand, and the Philippines to understand contemporary authoritarianism and democratic backsliding in the Southeast Asian context.
