Politics & Society

Political Transition & Elite Discourse in Cambodia, 1991-99

28.04.2008

After ten years of political transition, Cambodia has just passed through a third stage of transition in the form of national grass-roots elections to dilute elite power. Examination of that experience suggests that a key theoretical framework for understanding and explaining political democratization - that of Dankwart A. Rustow - is only partly appropriate. Specifically, the elections of 1993 failed to contribute to the consolidation of democracy because they were not a product of Cambodian society: they were imposed by external agencies, and they did not induce the rival political elite groupings into acceptance of democratic conventions. It took almost a further decade for sufficient trust within the elite to develop to a level where 'habituation' could allow for further consolidation of democracy. In this process the establishment of a second parliamentary chamber, the Senate, performed a key function in allowing for participation by 'losers', whose acceptance of the new order was thereby won.