Undemocratic democrats: a case study of the National League for Democracy

Thesis

Why did the National League for Democracy (NLD), a political party founded to end military rule and to introduce democracy in Myanmar, make political decisions that contravened democracy when it came to power? Since its founding in 1988, the NLD campaigned for the introduction of democracy, the protection of human rights, and the rights of Myanmar’s ethnic minorities.

Yet, when in government, from 2016 to 2021, the party refrained from protecting and expanding freedom of speech, supported the military’s genocidal campaign against the Rohingya minority, failed to advance the peace process, and increasingly centralised its own structures and processes to limit the level of internal party democracy.

Using explaining-outcome process-tracing I provide a detailed explanation of the party’s actions, which draws on numerous interviews I conducted with NLD politicians and internal party documents I collected. I argue that the interplay between the external condition of being a pro-democratic party in an authoritarian regime and a series of characteristic internal features created a party of undemocratic democrats. Undemocratic democrats simultaneously oppose and support democracy because they believe that advancing democracy in the setting of an authoritarian or a hybrid regime requires some undemocratic means.

I conclude that the NLD is neither a democratic party that became authoritarian, nor an authoritarian party that was never democratic to begin with, but rather a party that developed a political culture that is democratic as well as undemocratic. The party’s political decisions in office thus might appear contradictory but are in fact an outcome of a particular trajectory of party development, which I trace in this thesis.

Authors: Roewer, R

• DOI: 10.5287/ora-zre2knkek
• Type of award: DPhil
• Level of award: Doctoral
• Awarding institution: University of Oxford
• Language: English
• Keywords: political parties; Party culture; party development; Burma; Myanmar; undemocratic democrats; Aung San Suu Kyi; party factions; NLD; Myanmar politics; delayed democracy; party organisation; National League for Democracy; democratic parties in authoritarian regimes; political parties in hybrid regimes; opposition-successor party
• Subjects: Politics and government; Political parties; Democracy; Burma--History--Coup d'état, 2021