Territorial Governance in Southeast Asia - (Constitutionalism in Asia) by Andrew Harding

About the Book

Focuses on the decentralisation in Southeast Asian countries, specifically Indonesia, Thailand, the Philippines, and Malaysia.

Book Synopsis

This book considers decentralisation in Southeast Asia.

Focusing on Indonesia, Thailand, the Philippines and Malaysia, it looks back at the historical background of local governance in the region and examines the distinction between ' organic ' and administrative local governments. It explores the concept of pluralism in relation to locality and localism and explores the extent to which decentralised governance is mandated by the constitution before looking at examples of autonomy in the region.

The book looks at processes and reservations such as sanctions, cancelling laws which are beyond powers or constitutional norms, dismissal of offi cials or fi scal measures. It looks at the way development communities internationally consider decentralisation of central importance and examines the impact of this. Finally it considers the way that the move to decentralise in the region has
been followed by a measure of recentralisation.

About the Author

Andrew Harding is Visiting Research Professor at the National University of Singapore, Professor of Law at the University of Reading Malaysia, and a Visiting Professor at the University of Oxford. He is a founding editor of the Hart Publishing book series, Constitutional Systems of World.