Limited Liberalism

This chapter focuses on puzzling issues arising from the explorations undertaken in preceding chapters, and captures them in the notion of limited liberalism. It presents this concept as a critical analytical tool for understanding the nature of Myanmar’s transition. It opens by describing some contradictions that emerged from our exploration of Myanmar in reform, sets them in comparative perspective, and probes their limits or boundaries. It then devises the concept of limited liberalism, exposes its assumptions, and examines it as a property of the political culture of hybrid regimes. Finally, it returns to empirical study to investigate liberalism, illiberalism, and limited liberalism in our case. It concludes by using limited liberalism to chart the prospects for liberal democracy in Myanmar.