Myanmar: Transition, praetorian politics, and the prospects for democratic change

Striking transformations have taken place in Myanmar1 since the junta-or State Peace and Development Council (SPDC)—organized controversial elections on November 7, 2010. The nationwide vote was then lambasted as a sham by many activist groups and foreign observers. The allegedly pro-regime party formed earlier that year, the Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP), had risen as the main beneficiary of the polls, easily winning three-quarters of the seats up for grabs. Soon after the elections, the SPDC was officially disbanded and a quasi-civilian government sworn in under the leadership of Thein Sein, SPDC’s last Prime Minister, in March 2011. Most senior officials of the State Council as well as a few high-ranking officers of the Burmese armed forces (or Tatmadaw) retired to join the USDP ranks and become elected civilian MPs; others entered the “post-junta” bureaucracy and the new governing institutions. Not an abrupt departure from the past, the 2011 transition appeared, therefore, a well-calculated continuation of a political system meant to ensure the continuing domination of the Burmese military elite. © 2015 Selection and editorial matter, William Case; individual chapters, the contributors.