1. Popular Resistance in Cambodia: The Rationale Behind Government Response
- Author
-
Young Sokphea
- Subjects
Government ,Sociology and Political Science ,05 social sciences ,Resistance (psychoanalysis) ,Public administration ,Investment (macroeconomics) ,050601 international relations ,0506 political science ,Agrarian society ,Expropriation ,Political economy ,Political Science and International Relations ,Land acquisition ,050602 political science & public administration ,Economics ,Mechanism (sociology) ,Legitimacy - Abstract
Agrarian resistance often occurs as a result of expropriation and dispossession of poor farmers’ land and other properties. This paper examines how cost-benefit rational choice determined the government of Cambodia's response to poor farmers’ resistance to large-scale land acquisition for an agro-industrial investment. Theoretically, whatever mechanism a government chooses to respond to resistance, the aim is to retain more benefits, especially political legitimacy. In this study, the government, in collaboration with private companies, opted for a combination of strong repression and partial concession in response to the resistance by the communities. The study argues that this response is basically determined by cost-benefit calculations. However, the purpose is not to retain political legitimacy as theoretically argued, but to protect the economic interests of the client-patron networks that had developed between foreign companies and the powerful local politico-commercial personages associated with the regime.
- Published
- 2016