CAMBODIAN YOUTH IN CREATING MORE LIBERAL DEMOCRACY (original) (raw)
Related papers
2018
After the 2018 elections, political rights are scarce in Cambodia, new laws are enacted that tighten state control, and critics are under constant fear of crackdown. Youth, especially, have due to their mobility, size and strength gained increasing attention from the government, attempting to de-politicise youth activities and groups. This thesis examines young civil society actors' possibilities to participate, thus answering the questions; How do civil society actors adapt their strategies of participation? What modes of participation (Jayasuriya & Rodan, 2007) are accessible, meaning how does the government organize and manage conflict? What do (un)available modes of participation tell us about the regime? The analysis builds on empirical data collected while on fieldwork in Cambodia and comprises 16 semi-structured interviews with youth actors. The analysis arrives at the following result; the government organizes the access to political resources in a way that effectively excludes critics from modes of participation that allow for contestation. This results in actors searching for new modes of participation, exiting what is commonly understood of as 'civil society' while continuing to identify as belonging to this sphere. Thus, this thesis provides a reconceptualization of 'civil society' capable of encompassing Cambodian youths' struggle for access.
YOUTH POLITICAL PARTICIPATION ON FACEBOOK AND CIVIC ENGAGEMENT IN CAMBODIA
YOUTH POLITICAL PARTICIPATION ONLINE AND CIVIC ENGAGEMENT IN CAMBODIA, 2018
This paper discusses the influence of youth political participation on Facebook on youth’s engagement concerning electoral participation, involvement in policy-making, and the exercise of freedom of association and of speech. The paper seeks to address the question, “How can Cambodian youth political participation on Facebook affect certain facets of civic engagement in Cambodia?” by using a mixed-method, descriptive analysis framework. There are three major findings: (1). Youth’s Facebook use for political participation was a contributing factor in high youth’s voter turnout rates in the 2013 National Elections and the 2017 Communal Elections; (2). Youth have more opportunities to engage in online socialization with the government, and in some instances, their interactions can influence the government’s policy reforms; and (3). Existing Facebook sociopolitical discussion groups facilitate network-building and discussions and debates among youths, that sometimes can be extended to offline gatherings among them for further discussions. All in all, active online political participation by the youth is promising for a young democracy like Cambodia.
Facebooking: youth's everyday politics in Cambodia
This paper takes the critical view of online activism as its point of departure and explores how Cambodian youth's activities on Facebook have spilled over into formal politics. Contrary to concerns that Facebook and other social media tools distract activists from more effective means of political participation, this paper suggests that Facebooking has contributed positively to offline political participation and more importantly the petty acts of discussing and sharing information on Facebook have in occasions, given the magnitude and favourable political context, succeeded in triggering changes in government decisions and behaviours. In developing these arguments, we drew upon everyday politics perspectives which provide the theoretical ground to qualify Facebooking as political and to make sense of their significance.
Social and Political Fractures after Wars The Role of Youth Violence in post-1993 Cambodia
University of Duisburg-Essen. The project aims at explaining different levels of youth violence in two post-war societies whose processes of war termination are regarded as successful. However, both societies face serious problems of post-war development that are closely related to the experiences of war and war termination. While Cambodia's democratisation process is considered more or less as a failure, Guatemala suffers from levels of violence higher than during most of the war. The differences between both countries in levels of violence and mechanisms of violence control are also visible in the incidence of youth violence.
Cambodian Democratization and its challenges
This paper intends to address the political situation in Cambodia. It focuses on the democratization process and its challenges. It examines the political willingness of leaders, knowledge of people as well as corruption, and the problem of separation of power and democratic institutions. The paper utilizes the delegative democracy approach to explain the difficulties faced by Cambodia in its democratization process. With respect to this, the paper also explains how democracy influences the political situation of the country and the living conditions of Cambodian people. In order to promote democracy, the paper demonstrates that people participation and social media could play a very important role to improve democracy in Cambodia. Keywords: Cambodia, Democracy, Democratization, Delegative- Democracy, and Political Situation
Cambodia's Political Development in 2050: A Youth's Perspective
Khmer Times, 2021
Today is November 9, 2050. Cambodian people are proudly and cheerfully celebrating the 97 th anniversary of their country's Independence Day. Impressively, Cambodia is now a knowledge-based economy and a developed country with a gross national income (GNI) per capita of around US$ 12,600, thanks to strong economic growth and well-functioning democracy for the last few decades.
2009
Young people express an increasing rejection of institutional politics and its classic actors, which has led to the assertion that youth are apathetic. This article intends to show why this affirmation is partial and does not reflect the underlying complexity of what motivates political participation in young people. The hypothesis is that since young people interpret the youth condition as transitory, they do not consider youth political participation an end in itself. While the youth condition does not structure political participation or constitute actors and political projects, there are specificities of youth political participation that need to be identified. For the purpose of identifying what motivates youth to participate -- and how and where do they tend to do so -- three cases of political involvement are presented: ATTAC Argentina, the Klampun Community of Papua New Guinea and the World YWCA. The theoretical sections rest on a broadly based research study suggest a reformulation of the common adult perception on youth political participation.