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Kem Ley and Cambodian Citizenship Today: Grass-Roots Mobilisation, Electoral Politics and Individuals
[journal article]
Abstract Starting with a bang in 2013 and ending silently in 2017, Cambodia experienced a brief democratic momentum that saw people taking to the streets to demand political change. Kem Ley - a political analyst and grass-roots organiser - provided a rallying point that ordinary Cambodians gathered around pa... view more
Starting with a bang in 2013 and ending silently in 2017, Cambodia experienced a brief democratic momentum that saw people taking to the streets to demand political change. Kem Ley - a political analyst and grass-roots organiser - provided a rallying point that ordinary Cambodians gathered around particularly after his 2016 murder, yet his political legacy remains meagre. The Grassroots Democratic Party that Kem Ley was involved in setting up commands next to no popular allegiance and performed poorly both in local elections in 2017 and national elections 2018. This article seeks to explore an elusive aspect of Cambodia’s democratic momentum: civil society activists moving to engage in electoral politics. It is argued that Cambodian activists have sought to reshape party politics according to civil society logics, but that this has been an ambiguous enterprise with little appeal to a sharply divided electorate.... view less
Keywords
civil society; democratization; political change; Democratic Party (USA); mobilization; political participation; Cambodia; Southeast Asia
Classification
Political Process, Elections, Political Sociology, Political Culture
Free Keywords
citizenship; electoral politics
Document language
English
Publication Year
2019
Page/Pages
p. 77-97
Journal
Journal of Current Southeast Asian Affairs, 38 (2019) 1
Issue topic
Social movements in Cambodia
ISSN
1868-4882
Status
Published Version; peer reviewed