The politics of government-business relations in urban Southeast Asia: introduction and overview

Abstract

Recognising the increasingly urban character of Southeast Asian politics, our introduction to this special issue explores the varied patterns of government-business relations found across the region. In some urban centres, businesses form collusive rent-seeking relations with mayors and other politicians; in others, they support governance reform and urban renewal. In beginning to unpick this variation, we briefly highlight what we can learn from literatures on national-level government-business relations and subnational politics - emphasising that local-level government-business relations commonly diverge in significant ways from those at the national level. Next, we survey the articles that follow through three themes: relative strengths of local government and business across distinct urban settings; changes over time in the presence and efficacy of development coalitions spanning government and business; and recent innovations in government-business ties in certain cities. We end by calling for increased research into this important but poorly understood topic.