The Newsletter 78 Autumn 2017

Since the fall of the Khmer Rouge regime in 1979 Cambodian politics has been dominated by Prime Minister Hun Sen and his ruling Cambodian People’s Party (CPP). Profits of the widespread marketisation of natural resources, cheap labour and foreign investment are distributed among the dominating elite of Cambodia’s patrimonial society, whilst the majority of the population remains bereft of the advantages of economic growth. Taken together, the contributions to the Focus of this issue reveal a political modus operandi, in the context of a politics that has facilitated the CPP’s domination, but which now provokes an increasing challenge to this hegemony.