In the late 20th Century, many commentators assumed that communism and autocracy in general were destined to fade away as the citizens of developing countries became increasingly prosperous and educated and gradually came to accept liberal democracy as the eventual form of government. However, recent democratic backsliding globally has generated interest in analyzing the persistence of authoritarianism in some states. Commentators have also begun to try to identify factors influencing these regimes’ form and longevity. In this paper, I analyze and compare the historical, cultural, and institutional factors which have shaped the Vietnamese and Cambodian communist regimes into the present day, with particular attention to state-society relations and the various ways in which the regime has sought to supplant and/or co-opt existing social and cultural institutions. I argue that the ideological co-optation of institutions has been much more complete and longer lasting in Vietnam.

This article attempts to locate the extent to which gendered conceptions and performances of beauty and aesthetics reflect on and reinforce (gender) inequalities in South Korea. Drawing on the works of Butler, this author seeks to foster discussion surrounding the intersection of gender performances and beauty, and how it has become salient in the contemporary Korean context. Zooming in on makeup and aesthetic/cosmetic surgery as prevalent, often labeled gendered, phenomena amongst the Korean population, this article establishes how beautification tactics as a common practice inform broader discussions surrounding (in) equality in the country.

This article introduces the political thoughts of Confucianism and its collision with liberalism during the Republic of China. Confucianism was characterized by three features: family-based ethics, the cultivation of human virtues, pragmatic political ideology, and the worship of historical traditions. Impacted by both liberalism, these features were transformed into modern ideas. However, because of the pressing appeals of nationalism, the transformation wasn't completely liberal and many residual influences of Confucianism kept their importance. This doomed the failure of liberalism in China.

For those interested in Thai politics and in diving into the meaning of what it is to design citizenship, "Citizen Designs" by Eli Elinoff comes as a relevant narrative unfolded into three parts. Starting by discussing historical state efforts, moving to democratic community-building processes and the impact of post-2014 urbanization, the author uses the example of a marginalized community in Northeastern Thailand to write about the relationship between politics and design to shape citizens even in a not-always-democratic environment.