Understanding hybrid democracy in Cambodia: The nexus between liberal democracy and a 'politics of presence'.

This paper focuses on the gap between globally promoted definitions of liberal democracy, on the one hand, and the different national 'bottom-up' based interpretations of democracy, on the other hand. Departing from an interest in the gap between 'hegemonic' views of democracy, and then moving to the nationally lived Cambodian experiences and strategies, it will be argued in the paper that one of the basic concepts of liberal democracy, namely 'politics of ideas', does not match national facets of democracy. Put in a different way, followers of liberal democracy give priority to the representation of ideas and ideologies over who represents them. This priority, however, corresponds poorly to the reality in Cambodia. Based on interviews with 100 politicians and development workers, conducted between 1995 and 2007, the paper shows how Cambodian interpretations of the Western discourse of 'liberal democracy' try to bridge the gap between 'the politics of ideas' and 'the politics of presence'. The final conclusion of the paper is that two dimensions of Cambodian democracy need to be further investigated, namely, how are Cambodian notions of a 'politics of presence' influencing, assimilating and hybridizing with notions of liberal democracy? And, how might a 'politics of presence' be brought in to develop a democratic system that is in line with Cambodian notions of decision making?. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]