The Politics of Government–Business Relations in Urban Southeast Asia: Introduction and Overview

Recognising the increasingly urban character of Southeast Asian politics, our introduction to this special issue explores the varied patterns of government–business relations found across the region. In some urban centres, businesses form collusive rent-seeking relations with mayors and other politicians; in others, they support governance reform and urban renewal. In beginning to unpick this variation, we briefly highlight what we can learn from literatures on national-level government–business relations and subnational politics – emphasising that local-level government–business relations commonly diverge in significant ways from those at the national level. Next, we survey the articles that follow through three themes: relative strengths of local government and business across distinct urban settings; changes over time in the presence and efficacy of development coalitions spanning government and business; and recent innovations in government–business ties in certain cities. We end by calling for increased research into this important but poorly understood topic.