The Dual Track of Democracy Promotion in Post-War Peacebuilding in Cambodia: The Gap Between Institutional Development and Civil Society Mobilisation
Publisher: Peacebuilding
Author(s): SungYong Lee and Park WookBoem
Date: 2018
Topics: Cooperation, Governance, Monitoring and Evaluation, Programming
Countries: Cambodia
Through consideration of the promotion of democracy in post-war reconstruction in the country, this article aims to explain why anti-government protests in Cambodia have recently become more outspoken, organised and sustained. It argues that two areas of democracy promotion driven by international peacebuilding agencies have progressed in different directions. Moreover, while the rapid progress at institutional level during the 1990s has significantly slowed in recent years, the democracy movement within Cambodian civil society has constantly advanced. Hence, the current process at the institutional level cannot accommodate the raised expectations of and demands from civil society. The article then discusses the implications of such rapid and complex transformation of the Cambodian local context for the practice of post-war peacebuilding.