This book provides an institutionalist argument in explaining the nature of political transitions in selected Southeast Asian countries, specifically the Philippines, Myanmar, Thailand, Indonesia, and Malaysia. Applying concepts like path dependence, increasing returns, and institutional density, the book demonstrates that political change and consolidation remain problematic because actors — change agents included — remain hostage to institutional qualities, which are products of state's historical, political, social, and economic processes. While political change is not impossible — as the cases demonstrate — consolidating change can be highly elusive because change agents are invested in existing institutional logic. The book argues that institutional change and consolidating political change are complicated; they are never unidirectional, teleological, or transformational in character. The cases highlight the importance of context, that idiosyncratic institutional qualities or particularism are crucial in determining state's ability to consolidate change.
