Book Review: Michael Sullivan, Cambodia Votes
| Published date | 01 November 2017 |
| Date | 01 November 2017 |
| DOI | 10.1177/1478929917714957 |
| Author | Patrick Hein |
| Subject Matter | Book ReviewsAsia and the Pacific |
678 Political Studies Review 15(4)
still remains unanswered, though, refers to
the prevention of this conflict: Were the
tragic outcomes inevitable and, if so, what
should be done to prevent a recurrence?
Patrick Hein
(Meiji University, Japan)
© The Author(s) 2017
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DOI: 10.1177/1478929917714956
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Cambodia Votes by Michael Sullivan.
Copenhagen: NIAS Press, 2016. 341pp., £18.99
(p/b), ISBN 9788776941871
Michael Sullivan’s book offers a valuable
account of elections in a country marred by a
culture of impunity, authoritarianism and
human rights violations. The well-chosen
cover shows Hun Sen, one of the longest serv-
ing, most resilient prime ministers, holding a
voting ballot in his hands. The strongman of
Cambodia, a former Khmer Rouge officer who
later defected to Vietnam and then became the
undisputed leader, has succeeded in consoli-
dating his power and maintaining international
legitimacy over the years.
Sullivan analyses the role of internation-
ally assisted elections in Cambodian democ-
racy promotion. There are basically two
opinions that deal with election theory: one
states that the rule of law should first be estab-
lished before holding elections, whereas
another holds that elections will bring about
democratic change sooner or later. Sullivan
starts his analysis with the 1993 elections
organised by the transitional authority set up
by the United Nations Conference on Trade
and Development (UNCTAD). International
donors insisted on holding the elections, and
even though Hun Sen lost the elections, he
managed to become co-prime minister. In the
aftermath of a military coup in 1997 that
helped him to influence the 1998 elections,
donors struggled to justify their continued
assistance for elections.
According to Sullivan, it was better for inter-
national donors ‘in the context of realpolitik to
remain engaged rather than to lose influence over
the conduct of the election process’ (p. 115). Hun
Sen led the governing Cambodian People’s Party
(CPP) to electoral victory in the 1998 elections,
as it won 64 of the 123 seats in the National
Assembly. As Sullivan observes, the interest in
stability and peace took precedence over democ-
ratisation for the 1998 election outcome: ‘In the
end, international donor support for the 1998
election enabled authoritarian elements to pre-
vail’ (p. 162). Moreover, international donor-led
economic reforms were by and large unsuccess-
ful because they served to ‘rationalize and legal-
ize […] an existing exploitative and extractive
state system, that served the dominant interests of
the CPP’ (p. 199).
Subsequent elections in 2003 and 2008 rein-
forced CPP dominance even more. However, in
the 2013 elections, Hun Sen’s CPP won only a
narrow victory over Sam Rainsy’s Cambodian
National Rescue Party (CNRP). It came as a
shock to the CPP that it lost 22 seats as the
CNRP captured 55 seats.
What lessons can be drawn from this? Do
elections make democracies, as claimed by
some? Sullivan concludes that ‘as crooked as
those elections were, they served the interests
of international donors’ (p. 294). It may be
inferred that he seems disappointed with the
fact that donors have not used their considera-
ble leverage to tackle corruption, nepotism and
authoritarianism.
Patrick Hein
(Meiji University, Japan)
© The Author(s) 2017
Reprints and permissions: sagepub.co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav
DOI: 10.1177/1478929917714957
journals.sagepub.com/home/psrev
Man or Monster?: The Trial of a Khmer
Rouge Torturer by Alexander Laban Hinton.
Durham; London: Duke University Press, 2016.
336pp., £22.99 (p/b), ISBN 9780822362739
In this book, the scholar Alexander Hinton
gives a realistic description of a man – Kaing
Guek Eav, better known as Duch – who was
accused, convicted and sentenced to life
imprisonment in 2012 by a hybrid international
court for the torture and execution of at least
12,272 prisoners at Security Centre 21 (S-21)
during the communist Khmer Rouge regime
which ruled Cambodia from 1975 to 1979.
Inspired by Hannah Arendt’s book
Eichmann in Jerusalem, published in 1963,
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