The State and Digital Governance in Southeast Asia

This important volume offers a critical examination of how Southeast Asian states utilise digital governance to improve public services, democracy, and service delivery, while maintaining control over their populations through, among other methods, digital surveillance and internet control.

Through a series of case studies, the book explores key themes such as regulatory frameworks, state strategies, and societal responses to digital governance. It examines Malaysia’s balancing act between regulation and repression, Singapore’s Smart Nation vision, and Indonesia’s ambitious yet authoritarian e-democracy initiatives. The book also delves into the challenges faced by countries such as Brunei and Cambodia, where digital governance is used by the respective regimes to manage misinformation and dissent. Employing diverse methodologies, including content analysis, elite interviews, and social network analysis, the chapters provide a nuanced understanding of how digital governance shapes political, social, and economic landscapes in the region. Truly comprehensive in its approach, the book covers contexts and circumstances present in Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam, Thailand, Singapore, the Philippines, Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, and Myanmar.

This book will be essential for scholars and postgraduate students studying the overlap between politics and technology, digital governance, Southeast Asian studies, and authoritarianism more broadly. Public policy students looking to understand the implications of digital governance for democracy and internet freedom will also benefit from the book.