Myanmar’s New Coup: Comparing, Historicizing, and Theorizing

Thursday, February 11, 2021
11:30 AM - 12:30 PM
(Pacific)

Online, via Zoom: REGISTER

Speaker: 
  • Dan Slater

**Please note all CDDRL events are scheduled using the Pacific Time Zone

About the Event: The paradox of analyzing politics in Myanmar is never knowing whether or not events should surprise us. What Myanmar’s traumatic political history tells us is likely to happen is often diametrically opposed to what comparative and theoretical perspectives tell us is likely to happen. This presentation will consider Myanmar’s past decade of experimenting with reversible political reforms – which at least for now seems to have culminated in the military coup of February 1st – from both of these divergent perspectives. It will then draw upon those perspectives to offer several optimistic scenarios, before puzzling over how to assess the relative likelihood of the main optimistic and pessimistic scenarios coming to pass.

 

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Dan Slater
About the Speaker:  Dan Slater is the Ronald and Eileen Weiser Professor of Emerging Democracies in the Department of Political Science and Director of the Weiser Center for Emerging Democracies (WCED) at the University of Michigan. He specializes in the politics and history of democracy and authoritarianism, with a regional focus on Southeast Asia. His most recent articles can be found in the Annual Review of Political Science, British Journal of Political Science, Comparative Politics, Democratization, Government and Opposition, Journal of East Asian Studies, Perspectives on Politics, and Social Science History.