ABSTRACT
When Burma gained independence from Britain in January 1948, it was fitted out with a Westminster-style system of parliamentary government in which prime minister and cabinet formed the most significant parts of the executive. This system remained in place for nearly a decade and a half, even surviving an 18-month period of caretaker military government from 1958 to 1960 that saw General Ne Win assume the premiership and appoint his own cabinet, but leave intact the basic structure of government. It was destroyed, however, by a full-blown coup performed by Ne Win in March 1962, which replaced the governance model created at independence with a military-backed Leninist control apparatus focused originally on an eight-member Revolutionary Council (RC) (Taylor 2009, 296), and from January 1974 on the Burma Socialist Programme Party (BSPP). In turn, this regime collapsed during Burma’s 8-8-88 uprising for democracy, and in September 1988 a 19-member military junta took its place (Lintner 1989). Initially called the State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC), the junta was known from November 1997 as the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC). In March 2011, a new path was taken when a transition was launched from direct military rule to quasi-civilian government focused on an indirectly elected president authorized to make a wide array of executive appointments. When the opposition National League for Democracy (NLD) won the November 2015 general election and took office in March 2016, a special position of state counsellor was established to enable long-standing leader Aung San Suu Kyi to direct the business of government despite a constitutional provision barring her from the presidency. The new polity remains a work in progress.
