Table Of ContentSocial Cohesion in Asia
T his book explores the historical origins, contemporary dynamics and future
challenges of social cohesion in South, Southeast and East Asia—one of the most
dynamic and at the same time heterogeneous regions in the world, in terms of
economic, political and human development.
The comparative case studies in this volume develop a better understanding of
social cohesion in Asia by exploring how social cohesion is understood, analyzed
and sometimes politically instrumentalized. Examining different dimensions and
qualities of social cohesion and how they are linked together, it also discusses
the challenges of social cohesion in individual societies. The case studies include
examples from Bangladesh, India, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Myanmar, Singapore,
South Korea and Mainland China and building on the conceptual work and
empirical findings of the Asian Social Cohesion Radar, this book provides detailed
cross-country analyses over the past fifteen years.
Combining rigorous conceptual and theoretical reasoning with a systematic
empirical analysis of trends across the region, S ocial Cohesion in Asia will be
of great interest to students and scholars of Asian politics, international relations,
political sociology, comparative politics and Democratization Studies.
Aurel Croissant is Professor of Political Science at Heidelberg University,
Germany.
Peter Walkenhorst is Senior Project Manager at the Bertelsmann Stiftung in
Gütersloh, Germany.
Routledge Studies on Comparative Asian Politics
The series is edited by Shiping Hua, the Calvin and Helen Lang
Distinguished Chair in Asian Studies, Director of the Asian Studies
Program and Professor of Political Science at the University of
Louisville, USA.
The Editorial Board: Alice Ba, University of Delaware, USA Mark Beeson,
University of Murdoch, Australia Jennifer Bussell, University of California at
Berkeley, USA William Callahan, London School of Economics and Political
Science, UK Nobuhiro Hiwatari, University of Tokyo, Japan Jia Qingguo,
Peking University, China Jin Canrong, Renmin University, China David Kang,
University of Southern California, USA Peter Moody, Notre Dame University,
USA Mariya Y. Omelicheva, University of Kansas, USA Naveed Sheikh,
University of Keele, UK Narendra Subramanian, McGill University, Canada
Rina Williams, University of Cincinnati, USA Brian Woodall, Georgia Institute
of Technology, USA Quansheng Zhao, American University, USA
Books in this series will cover such areas as political institutions and systems,
political economy, political culture, political thought, political psychology, public
administration, law, and political histories of Asia. The studies may deal with Asia
as a whole, a single country, or a group of countries in Asia. Those studies that
have a clear comparative edge are especially welcome.
An East Asian Challenge to Western Neoliberalism
Niv Horesh and Kean Fan Lim
China’s Global Political Economy
Managerial Perspectives
Robert Taylor and Jacques Jaussaud
Japanese Contemporary Politics
Igarashi Akio
Social Cohesion in Asia
Historical Origins, Contemporary Shapes and Future Dynamics
Edited by Aurel Croissant and Peter Walkenhorst
The Evolving Relationship between China, the EU and the USA
A New Global Order?
Edited by Jing Men, Simon Schunz and Duncan Freeman
For more information about this series, please visit: www.routledge.com/Routledge
Studies-on-Comparative-Asian-Politics/book-series/RSCAP
Social Cohesion in Asia
Historical Origins, Contemporary
Shapes and Future Dynamics
Edited by Aurel Croissant
and Peter Walkenhorst
First published 2020
by Routledge
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British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Croissant, Aurel, 1969– editor. | Walkenhorst, Peter, editor.
Title: Social cohesion in Asia : Historical origins, contemporary shapes
and future dynamics / edited by Aurel Croissant, Peter Walkenhorst.
Description: 1 Edition. | New York : Routledge, 2019. | Series: Routledge
studies on comparative Asian politics | Includes bibliographical
references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2019034963 (print) | LCCN 2019034964 (ebook) |
ISBN 9780367280789 (hardback) | ISBN 9780429326332 (ebook) |
ISBN 9781000751871 (adobe pdf) | ISBN 9781000752007 (mobi) |
ISBN 9781000752137 (epub)
Subjects: LCSH: Social integration—Asia. | Asia—Social conditions. |
Asia—Social policy.
Classification: LCC HM683 .S6193 2019 (print) | LCC HM683 (ebook) |
DDC 306—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019034963
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019034964
ISBN: 978-0-367-28078-9 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-0-429-32633-2 (ebk)
Typeset in Times New Roman
by Apex CoVantage, LLC
Contents
List of figures vii
List of tables ix
List of contributors x
Foreword xiii
STEPHAN VOPEL
Acknowledgements xvi
AUREL CROISSANT AND PETER WALKENHORST
1 Social cohesion in Asia: an introduction 1
AUREL CROISSANT AND PETER WALKENHORST
2 Social cohesion and welfare reforms: the Chinese approach 26
KA HO MOK AND YUYANG KANG
3 The Leviathan and its muscular management of social cohesion
in Singapore 50
PRAVIN PRAKASH
4 South Korea: a triple paradox of social cohesion 74
AUREL CROISSANT AND JUNG-EUN KIM
5 Fragmented society, stable democracy: the Indian paradox 101
SUBRATA MITRA
6 Bangladesh: holding together a low cohesion society 122
ALI RIAZ
7 Achieving unity in extreme diversity? Social cohesion
in Indonesia 149
PATRICK ZIEGENHAIN
vi Contents
8 Religious mobilisation, ethnic conflict and the problem
of trust: social cohesion in democratising Myanmar 169
MARCO BÜNTE
9 Sri Lanka: the dark side of social cohesion in divided societies 190
CHRISTOPH TRINN
10 Conclusion: globalisation, inequality, democracy and social
cohesion in Asia 213
AUREL CROISSANT
Index 231
Figures
1.1 Number of democracies and autocracies in SSEA, 1900–2017 5
1.2 Electoral and liberal democracy in SSEA 6
1.3 Number of social cohesion entries in the Social Sciences
Citation Index, 1998–2018 7
2.1 Gini coefficient in China 32
2.2 Regional economic inequality in China, 2003–2016 33
2.3 The expenditures of social welfare programmes in China 36
2.4 The number of people on basic medical insurance 36
2.5 Social security expenditure per capita in China 38
3.1 Social cohesion in Singapore, Waves 1 and 2 51
3.2 Identification with the local community in selected
Asian countries 52
3.3 National pride in selected Asian countries 53
4.1 Gross national income per capita and Gini index of income
inequality, 1962–2017 75
4.2 Level of attachment and belonging to the community
in South Korea 82
4.3 Trust in social and political institutions in South Korea 83
4.4 Income inequality and social justice in Asia 87
4.5 Regions in South Korea 90
4.6 Annual number of North Korean defectors entering South
Korea, 1998–2018 93
5.1 Reciprocal bonds: a structural-functional image of the Jajmani
system, representing mechanical solidarity of traditional society 105
5.2 The Congress ʻsystemʼ in India: interlocking of a fragmented
society and cohesive polity 108
5.3 The Durkheim curve: solidarity, social change and social
cohesion 117
6.1 Bangladesh economic growth and poverty, 1991–2016 125
6.2 Approval of institutions, 2015–2018 128
6.3 Structural change of Bangladeshi economy, 1972–2017 134
7.1 Economic inequality in Indonesia 163
8.1 Trust in political institutions in Myanmar 176
viii Figures
9.1 District-level distribution of ethnic groups by relative majority 191
10.1 Overall index of social cohesion Wave 1 and Wave 2 relative
to economic globalisation 216
10.2 Liberal Democracy Index relative to economic globalisation 216
10.3 Procedural understanding of democracy in Asia 217
10.4 Regime-based and performance-based support for democracy
in Asia 218
10.5 Trust in elected and non-elected institutions in Asia 219
10.6 Trust in national and local governments in Asia 220
10.7 Income inequality in Asia, 1980–2017 223
10.8 Perceptions of income inequality in Asia 224
Tables
1.1 Selected indicators of structural transformation in 22 Asian
societies 3
1.2 Examples of current definitions of social cohesion 9
1.3 Domains, dimensions and indicators of social cohesion in Asia 10
1.4 Strength of social cohesion according to the overall index
and the three domains, Waves 1 and 2 11
A1.1 Strength of social cohesion according to domains
and dimensions (Second Wave, 2009–2015) 25
2.1 A comparison of social cohesion and social harmony 28
2.2 Regional variations in average per capita annual incomes,
population and GDP structure (2017) 33
2.3 Social policy expansion and major policy initiatives in China
(since 2003) 37
4.1 Definitions of social cohesion in the Korea-focused literature 79
4.2 The Social Cohesion Index of the KIHASA 80
4.3 The Global Gender Gap Index 88
5.1 Social cohesion in India in intra-South Asian comparison:
a diachronic analysis 102
5.2 Religion in India 106
5.3 Efficacy of vote (in percentages) 110
5.4 Legitimacy (in percentages) 111
5.5 Trust in institutions 111
5.6 Perception of empowerment, and social and material capacity 112
5.7 Citizen duties and their evaluation by respondents 113
5.8 Attitudes, political culture and governance 114
5.9 Communal polarisation and political attitudes (in percentages) 115
6.1 Bangladesh social cohesion trends 126
6.2 Geographical group belonging 126
6.3 Belonging to social organisations, 2002 127
6.4 Volunteering for social organisations , 2002 127
6.5 Trust in institutions 127
8.1 Asian Radar 2004–2015 173
8.2 How do people in Myanmar see themselves? 176
