ABSTRACT
This chapter gives an updated account on civil society in Burma (Myanmar). Military rule has had a transformational impact on civil society in the Asia Pacific region. Yet modern and traditional civil society can still exist under authoritarian conditions, although the latter may threaten the state’s dominance of political society in a militarized regime. McCarthy examines the nature of civil and political society in Burma, a country that has recently emerged from direct military rule. He considers the military’s changing role, and how it has taken steps to safeguard its role in political society.
