Walton explains political dynamics in Myanmar through Buddhist thought, providing a conceptual framework for understanding Myanmar's ongoing political transition.

Popular participation is one of the hallmarks of modern politics. So why have democracy and democratic norms generally failed to take root in the Theravada Buddhist countries of South and Southeast Asia? This book explores traditions of Buddhist political thought in Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, and Cambodia. Matthew Walton considers each country's trajectory towards independence, the controversial issue of monastic political engagement, the influence of other political forces, and persistent attempts to restrict participation, even in contemporary democratic states. He also contextualises this landscape within the Theravada Buddhist arguments for and against greater political participation, probing the dualistic understanding of human nature that questions ability to self-govern while valuing moral improvement through free action. Secular rationales in favour of democracy are unlikely to be effective unless they consider the logic of the Theravada moral universe. To move forward, South Asian democracy supporters must not only heed Walton's assessment of the region's politico-religious nexus, but also engage with the fundamental ambivalence he identifies in Buddhist perspectives on the legitimacy of mass participation.

Aung San Suu Kyi spoke passionately about non-violence, she wrote involved articles about compatibility of democracy with Buddhism and she won the hearts and minds of so many with her call for the freedom from fear (…) It seemed – for more than two decades – that Suu Kyi was a perfect, non-Western propagator of democracy, human rights, rule of law (…) Yet a deeper analysis reveals that Suu Kyi intellectually, indeed, has been a democrat all along, but a Burmese democrat (…) Suu Kyi understands democracy in a Buddhist way and she reasons about politics using Buddhist ideas, idioms and concepts (…) This Buddhist dominance of her political thought had several consequences, the most important one being that her approach to politics has first and foremost been a moral one (…) her vision of democracy (and of politics in general) is a moral vision. It is something I propose to call “the moral democracy.” The same reason that made her famous and admired worldwide, now contributed to her fall from grace. For too many outside Burma/Myanmar it is impossible to understand how Suu Kyi – yesterday’s global personification of good and morality – can now silently endorse crimes against humanity conducted in her country and accept forced relocation of 700 thousand people. A cynic would quote Bertrand Russell’s words (“we have two kinds of morality side by side: one which we preach but do not practice and another which we practice but seldom preach”) and add a commentary that it applies especially to politicians. One, however, may offer a more favourable explanation: that Suu Kyi represents a tragic clash of ideas, including moral ideas, with political reality. Whatever the case, it was morality that made her famous, it was the same moralistic attitude that contributed to her removal from international Olympus and it is this moral understanding of politics that is the hallmark of her political thought, which is here to stay for longer, as political ideas last longer than changing political circumstances and fashions. From the Preface The dramatic fall from grace of Burma's human rights icon Aung San Suu Kyi shocked the world. Michał Lubina's magisterial account of Aung San Suu Kyi's political education demystifies the behavior in power of this otherwise enigmatic leader. This is the indispensable book for anyone who wants to understand the mind of one of the world's most controversial women. Prof. Salvatore Babones, University of Sydney Dr. Michał Lubina, known in Poland for portraying Aung San Suu Kyi not as a human rights activist, but as a realist politician in the very footsteps of her father, now comes out with his research to the international audience. Following the example of Mahbubani’s Can Asian Think? Lubina shows the intellectual and philosophical tradition of Myanmar through the case study of Suu Kyi’s political thought. It’s a unique undertaking that presents Suu Kyi from an unexpected angle: as a theoretician and political thinker or sage. Both the scope of research done and the material presented are very impressive and rather unique, even on international scene. Prof. Bogdan Góralczyk, University of Warsaw, Former Ambassador to Myanmar This book is a well-documented and well-constructed, multilayered, complex, analytical work based on very rich research, interviews with Suu Kyi and personal observations of the Author, who displays unquestioned analytical skills. As such the book represents a pioneer work in Burmese studies. Prof. Agnieszka Kuszewska, Jagiellonian University in Cracow None of the numerous books and articles that I have read about Daw Aung San Suu Kyi dissects her political thoughts and background as thoroughly as the book written by Dr. Michał Lubina. He shows the political construction of her character, her struggle, her idealism, her sources of inspiration and her weaknesses. It is a necessary publication to read in order to understand historical and contemporary policymaking in today’s Burma. Dr. Marion Sabrié, University of Rouen Normandy

This study examines the impact of Buddhism on the political process of Asian countries in recent times. The intersection between Buddhism and politics; religious authority and political power is explored through the engagement of Buddhist monks and lay activists in the process of nation-building, development, and implementation of democracy.

For centuries, Burmese have looked to the authority of their religious tradition, Theravada Buddhism, to negotiate social and political hierarchies. Modern Buddhist Conjunctures in Myanmar examines those moments in the modern history of this Southeast Asian country when religion, culture, and politics converge to chart new directions. Arguing against Max Weber’s characterization of Buddhism as other-worldly and divorced from politics, this study shows that Buddhist practice necessitates public validation within an economy of merit in which moral action earns future rewards. The intervention of colonial modernity in traditional Burmese Buddhist worldviews has created conjunctures at which public concerns critical to the nation’s future are reinterpreted in light of a Buddhist paradigm of power. Author Juliane Schober begins by focusing on the public role of Buddhist practice and the ways in which precolonial Buddhist hegemonies were negotiated. Her discussion then traces the emergence of modern Buddhist communities through the colonial experience: the disruption of traditional paradigms of hegemony and governance, the introduction of new and secular venues to power, modern concerns like nationalism, education, the public place of religion, the power of the state, and Buddhist resistance to the center. The continuing discourse and cultural negotiation of these themes draw Buddhist communities into political arenas, either to legitimate political power or to resist it on moral grounds. The book concludes with an examination of the way in which Buddhist resistance in 2007, known in the West as the Saffron Revolution, was subjugated by military secularism and the transnational pressures of a global economy. A skillfully crafted work of scholarship, Modern Buddhist Conjunctures in Myanmar will be welcomed by students of Theravada Buddhism and Burma/Myanmar, readers of anthropology, history of religions, politics, and colonial studies of modern Southeast Asia, and scholars of religious and political practice in modern national contexts.

Despite the recent upsurge of interest in comparative political theory, there has been virtually no serious examination of Buddhism by political philosophers in the past five decades. In part, this is because Buddhism is not typically seen as a school of political thought. However, as Matthew Moore argues, Buddhism simultaneously parallels and challenges many core assumptions and arguments in contemporary Western political theory. In brief, Western thinkers not only have a great deal to learn about Buddhism, they have a great deal to learn from it. To both incite and facilitate the process of Western theorists engaging with this neglected tradition, this book provides a detailed, critical reading of the key primary Buddhist texts, from the earliest recorded teachings of the Buddha through the present day. It also discusses the relevant secondary literature on Buddhism and political theory (nearly all of it from disciplines other than political theory), as well as the literatures on particular issues addressed in the argument. Moore argues that Buddhist political thought rests on three core premises--that there is no self, that politics is of very limited importance in human life, and that normative beliefs and judgments represent practical advice about how to live a certain way, rather than being obligatory commands about how all persons must act. He compares Buddhist political theory to what he sees as Western analogues--Nietzsche's similar but crucially different theory of the self, Western theories of limited citizenship from Epicurus to John Howard Yoder, and to the Western tradition of immanence theories in ethics. This will be the first comprehensive treatment of Buddhism as political theory.

Examining Sri Lanka's religious and legal pasts, this is the first extended study of Buddhism and constitutional law.