As a researcher, I am deeply fascinated by the question of how power is sustained and reproduced. I have explored this question primarily in the context of authoritarian regimes, focusing specifically on elections, nation branding and Southeast Asia.
My research in this area explores the role elections play in authoritarian regimes. Most contemporary authoritarian regimes hold regular, even competitive elections, but authoritarian elections are often manipulated to ensure the regime’s continuous grip on power. There are many different ways in which authoritarian regimes can manipulate electoral contests, ranging from ballot box stuffing to banning of opposition parties, but I am particularly interested in understanding how and why formally independent election commission contribute to electoral manipulation in these contexts.
In my work, I argue that the establishment of formally independent election commissions creates a set of challenges that may become part of the problem why elections in authoritarian regimes fail to deliver change in power. Delving deep into the roles, responsibilities, powers, and organisational structures of election commissions and their relationships with different electoral stakeholders, I show how formally independent election commission can become authoritarian gatekeepers, hindering prospects for democracy in some contexts.
My work in this area is inspired by the changing nature of contemporary authoritarianism, both domestically and in its interactions with the outside world. It brings together scholarship in the disciplines of comparative politics, international relations and critical geopolitics. Nation branding is a popular practice among authoritarian regimes but has attracted relatively little interest among politics and international relations scholars. Part of the reason for this is that nation branding often seems like a superficial undertaking or a vanity project of sorts. But this is a very simplistic reading that fails to examine this fascinating practice properly.
The core argument of my research work is that nation branding forms an integral part of state legitimation processes in authoritarian regimes. Because of this, we need to stop seeing nation branding as an externally oriented, business-derived practice and instead understand it as an inherently inward-looking promotional strategy aimed at shaping the social attitudes and behaviours of the nation’s citizens in line with the government’s domestic agenda and legitimation needs.
Southeast Asia has a long history of authoritarian rule and continues to be home to many different forms of authoritarianism. This makes it a fascinating region to study. By examining the different characteristics of Southeast Asian authoritarianism, we can gain a better understanding of the factors that enable authoritarianism to persist and even thrive in this diverse region. As one of the key geo-strategic regions in the US-China rivalry, it is important to study and understand Southeast Asian authoritarianism more.
In this area, I am currently working on a research article that examines the extent to which the US-China rivalry maps on the domestic political attitudes of Thai citizens. In other words, are more politically conservative Thais likely to favour China over the US and more politically liberal Thais likely to favour the US over China? The paper’s findings will have important implications for our understanding of how China’s rise affects popular attitude towards democracy in Southeast Asia whilst demonstrating the need understand the effects of the US-China rivalry beyond focusing on the level of the political elites.
Overall, my research contributes to the study of authoritarianism by exploring a range of issues across different countries and contexts. By gaining a comprehensive understanding of how authoritarian power is sustained and reproduced, I hope to inform efforts on how to promote democracy around the world in a more effective and culturally and context-sensitive ways.
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