This book analyses how authoritarian rulers of Southeast Asian countries maintain their durability in office, and, in this context, explains why some movements of civil society organizations succeed while others fail to achieve their demands. It discusses the relationship between the state-society-business in the political survival context. As the first comparative analysis of strategies of regime survival across Southeast Asia, this book also provides an in-depth insight into the various opposition movements, and the behaviour of antagonistic civic and political actors in the region.

Sokphea Young is a postdoctoral researcher at the University College London, UK. His research is published, variously, in Journal of International Relations and Development, Journal of Civil Society, Asian Politics and Policy, Asian Journal of Social Science, Journal of Current Southeast Asian Affairs, the Chinese Journal of Comparative Law and South East Asia Research.

Chapter 1. Introduction: Political durability and protests.- Chapter 2. They dynamics of political durability of Hun Sen's regime.- Chapter 3. A peasant movement, kleptocratic elites and the global supply chains.- Chapter 4. The indigenous people and the strange Westerner.- Chapter 5. Civil society organisations versus the ruler: A zero-sum game?.- Chapter 6. A smart authoritarian leader and discontents in Malaysia.- Chapter 7.A strongman and dissidents in Indonesia.- Chapter 8.Conclusion: The logic of ruler survival, and consequences for discontents in Southeast Asia.