Research

The motivating force behind my research is to explore and explain the social and historical foundations of political order and accountability. My primary project – a book entitled Ordering Power: Contentious Politics and Authoritarian Leviathans in Southeast Asia – will be published in summer 2010 by Cambridge University Press in their Cambridge Studies in Comparative Politics series. A work of comparative-historical analysis covering seven Southeast Asian countries, the book proposes a unified theoretical framework tracing contemporary divergence in state strength and authoritarian durability to variation in the type and timing of contentious politics in the period following World War II. I am also a co-editor (with Erik Kuhonta and Tuong Vu) of Southeast Asia in Political Science: Theory, Region, and Qualitative Analysis (Stanford University Press, 2008), which explores and assesses the contributions of Southeast Asian political studies to theoretical knowledge in comparative politics. My second individual book project, tentatively titled Democracy Without Accountability: Party Cartels and Presidential Power in Indonesia, will examine the challenges of imposing effective accountability on political elites in new democracies. Details on articles I have published or have forthcoming in journals such as the American Journal of Political Science, American Journal of Sociology, Comparative Politics, Comparative Political Studies, International Organization, and Studies in Comparative International Development can be found below.

Forthcoming Work

Ordering Power: Contentious Politics and Authoritarian Leviathans in Southeast Asia. New York: Cambridge University Press (Cambridge Studies in Comparative Politics), 2010.

“Revolutions, Crackdowns, and Quiescence: Communal Elites and Democratic Mobilization in Southeast Asia.” American Journal of Sociology 115:1 (July 2009).

“Informative Regress: Critical Antecedents in Comparative Politics” (with Erica Simmons). Comparative Political Studies 43:9 (September 2010).

“Altering Authoritarianism: Institutional Complexity and Autocratic Agency in Indonesia.” In James Mahoney and Kathleen Thelen (eds.), Explaining Institutional Change: Agency, Ambiguity, and Power. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2009.

Published Work

“Can Leviathan be a Democrat? Competitive Elections, Robust Mass Politics, and State Infrastructural Power.” Studies in Comparative International Development 43:4 (December 2008), pp. 252-272.

Southeast Asia in Political Science: Theory, Region, and Qualitative Analysis (co-edited with Erik Kuhonta and Tuong Vu). Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2008.

"Democracies and Dictatorships Do Not Float Freely: Structural Sources of Political Regimes in Southeast Asia."  Chapter in Kuhonta, Slater and Vu. 

"Introduction: The Contributions of Southeast Asian Political Studies." (with Kuhonta and Vu). Chapter in Kuhonta, Slater and Vu.

"Concluding Remarks." (with Kuhonta and Vu).  Chapter in Kuhonta, Slater and Vu.

"The Architecture of Authoritarianism: Southeast Asia and the Regeneration of Democratization Theory." Taiwan Journal of Democracy 2:2 (December 2006), pp. 1-22.  

"The Ironies of Instability in Indonesia." Social Analysis 50:1 (Spring 2006), pp. 208-213.  

"Institutions of the Offensive: Domestic Sources of Dispute Initiation in Authoritarian Regimes, 1950-1992." (with Brian Lai).  American Journal of Political Science 50:1 (January 2006), pp. 113-126.

"Systematic Vulnerability and the Origins of Developmental States: Northeast and Southeast Asia in Comparative Perspective." (with Richard Doner and Bryan Ritchie).  International Organization 59:2 (Spring 2005), pp. 327-361.

"Indonesia's Accountability Trap: Party Cartels and Presidential Power after Democratic Transition." Indonesia 78 (October 2004), pp. 61-92.

"Democracy Takes a Thumping: Islamist and Democratic Opposition in Malaysia's Electoral Authoritarian Regime." Kyoto Review of Southeast Asia 5 (March 2004).

"Iron Cage in an Iron Fist: Authoritarian Institutions and Personalization of Power in Malaysia." Comparative Politics 36:1 (October 2003), pp. 81-101.

Unpublished Work

"Ordering Power: Contentious Politics, State-Building, and Authoritarian Durability in Southeast Asia."  Ph.D. Dissertation, Emory University, Department of Political Science (December 2005).

“State Power and Staying Power: Institutional Origins and Durable Authoritarianism in Malaysia and Singapore.” Under review.

“The Worst Kind of War: Regional Rebellions and Political Militarization in the Post-Colonial World” (with Christopher Haid). Under review.

“Political Rules and Real Politics: Opposition and Accountability in Democratic Indonesia.”

“Economic Origins of Democratic Breakdown? Contrary Evidence from Southeast Asia and Beyond” (with Benjamin Smith).

“Revitalizing the Controlled Comparison: Extreme Variation and External Validity in Qualitative Research” (with Daniel Ziblatt).