No CrossRef data available.
Article contents
Forging Autocratic Legitimation: Charisma and Mythmaking in Hun Sen's Cambodia
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 14 March 2025
Abstract
This essay discusses Hun Sen's rise and longevity by examining the former Khmer Rouge battalion leader's emergence from the fall of Democratic Kampuchea in 1979 and subsequent steady consolidation of political power in the years since he took over as Prime Minister of the People's Republic of Kampuchea (1985–89) and the State of Cambodia (1989–93). The essay explores how he accomplished an autocratic coup de grâce by ousting political rivals and then attempted to forge autocratic legitimation via self-mythologization and appeals to royal imagery. Through these means and heavy-handed repression, Hun Sen today has come to hold virtually unchecked, unmediated political power over a country that is still searching for the truth in its fraught post-independence history.
- Type
- Research Article
- Information
- Copyright
- Copyright © The Authors 2023
References
Ang, Cheng Guan. 2019. Southeast Asia after the Cold War. Honolulu, HI: University of Hawai'i Press.Google Scholar
Barma, Naazneen H. 2016. The Peacebuilding Puzzle: Political Order in Post-Conflict States. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Beban, Alice. 2021. Unwritten Rule: State-Making through Land Reform in Cambodia. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Becker, Elizabeth. 1998. When the War Was Over: Cambodia and The Khmer Rouge Revolution. New York, NY: PublicAffairs.Google Scholar
Chandler, David P. 2008. A History of Cambodia (4th Edition). Boulder, CO: Westview Press.Google Scholar
Chandler, David P. 1999. Brother Number One: A Political Biography of Pol Pot. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.Google Scholar
Chandler, David P. 1991. The Tragedy of Cambodian History: Politics, War, and Revolution since 1945. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Ear, Sophal. 2013. Aid Dependence in Cambodia: How Foreign Assistance Undermines Democracy. New York, NY: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
Edwards, Penny. 2007. Cambodge: The Cultivation of a Nation, 1860–1945. Honolulu, HI: University of Hawai'i Press.Google Scholar
Galway, Matthew. 2022. The Emergence of Global Maoism: China's Red Evangelism and the Cambodian Communist Movement, 1949-1979. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Galway, Matthew. 2019a. ‘Cambodia: Hun Sen's Unrelenting Grip on Power.’ Ear to Asia Podcast, Asia Institute, University of Melbourne, 12 April. arts.unimelb.edu.au/asia-institute/ear-to-asia/episodes/episode-43Google Scholar
Galway, Matthew. 2019b. ‘Specters of Dependency: Hou Yuon and the Origins of Cambodia's Marxist Vision (1955–1975).’ Cross Currents: East Asian History and Culture Review 31:126–61.Google Scholar
Witness, Global. 2016. ‘Hostile Takeover.’ Global Witness, 7 July. www.globalwitness.org/en/reports/hostile-takeover.Google Scholar
Gunn, Geoffrey C. 2018. Monarchical Manipulation in Cambodia: France, Japan, and the Sihanouk Crusade for Independence. Copenhagen: Nordic Institute of Asian Studies Press.Google Scholar
Harris, Ian. 2013. Buddhism in a Dark Age: Cambodian Monks under Pol Pot. Honolulu, HI: University of Hawai'i Press.Google Scholar
Head, Jonathan. 2019. ‘A Terminal Blow to Democracy.’ BBC News, 16 November. www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-42006828 accessed 18 May 2022.Google Scholar
Heder, Steve. 2005. ‘Hun Sen's Consolidation: Death or the Beginning of Reform?‘ Southeast Asian Affairs (2005): 113–30.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Heder, Steve. 1995. ‘Cambodia's Democratic Transition to Neoauthoritarianism.’ Current History 94:425–29.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hinton, Alexander Laban. 2005. Why Did They Kill? Cambodia in the Shadow of Genocide. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Watch, Human Rights. 2015. ‘30 Years of Hun Sen.’ Human Rights Watch, 12 January, www.hrw.org/report/2015/01/12/30-years-hun-sen/violence-repression-and-corruption-cambodia.Google Scholar
Jacobsen, Trude and Stuart-Fox, Martin. 2013. ‘Power and Political Culture in Cambodia.’ National University of Singapore Asia Research Institute, Working Paper Series 200.Google Scholar
Jeldres, Julio. 2012. ‘A Personal Reflection on Norodom Sihanouk and Zhou Enlai: An Extraordinary Friendship on the Fringes of the Cold War.’ Cross Currents, No. 4:52–64.Google Scholar
Times, Khmer. 2021. ‘PM Hun Sen Declares His Support for His Son Hun Manet to Succeed Him as Prime Minister.’ Khmer Times, 2 December. www.khmertimeskh.com/50981136/pm-hun-sen-declares-his-support-for-his-son-hun-manet-to-succeed-him-as-prime-minister.Google Scholar
Locard, Henri. 2005. Pol Pot's Little Red Book: The Sayings of Angkar. Chiang Mai: Silkworm Books.Google Scholar
Loughlin, Neil. 2020. ‘Reassessing Cambodia's Patronage System(s) and the End of Competitive Authoritarianism: Electoral Clientelism in the Shadow of Coercion.’ Pacific Affairs 93(3): 497–518.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Loughlin, Neil and Mile, Sarah. 2021. ‘After the Grab? Land Control and Regime Survival in Cambodia since 2012.’ Journal of Contemporary Asia 51(3): 375–97.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McKenzie, Nick and Baker, Richard. 2012. ‘Drugs: Our Man in Cambodia.’ The Age, 26 March. www.theage.com.au/national/drugs-our-man-in-cambodia-20120325-1vsiz.html.Google Scholar
Ministère des Affaires Étrangères du Kampuchéa Démocratique. 1978. Livre noir: Faits et preuves des actes d'agression et d'annexation du Vietnam contre le Kampuchea [Black Paper: Facts and Evidences of the Acts of Aggression and Annexation of Vietnam against Kampuchea]. Phnom Penh: Département de la Presse et l'Information du Ministre des Affaires Étrangères.Google Scholar
Norén-Nilsson, Astrid. 2022. ‘A Regal Authoritarian Turn in Cambodia.’ Journal of Contemporary Asia 52(5): 715–36.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Norén-Nilsson, Astrid. 2017a. ‘Elections and Emerging Citizenship in Cambodia.’ In Citizenship and Democratization in Southeast Asia, edited by Berenschot, Ward, Nordholt, Henk Schulte, and Bakker, Laurens, 68–95. Leiden: Brill.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Norén-Nilsson, Astrid. 2017b. ‘In the Shadow of Kem Ley: Is Civil Society the Solution to Cambodia's Woes?’ Made in China Journal 2(3): 68–71.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Norén-Nilsson, Astrid. 2016. Cambodia's Second Kingdom: Nation, Imagination, and Democracy. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press Southeast Asia Program.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Norodom, Sihanouk and Krisher, Bernard. 1990. Charisma and Leadership: The Human Side of Great Leaders of the Twentieth Century. Tokyo: Yohan Publications.Google Scholar
Norodom, Sihanouk. 1965. Notre socialisme Bouddhique [Our Buddhist Socialism]. Phnom Penh: Ministère de l'Information.Google Scholar
Path, Kosal and Nem, Boraden. 2022. ‘Vietnam's Military and Political Challenges in Cambodia and the Early Rise of Cambodia's Strongman, Hun Sen, 1977-79.’ TRaNS: Trans-Regional and -National Studies of Southeast Asia 10: 127–44.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
People's Republic of Kampuchea (PRK). 1988. ‘Circular Concerning Collecting Debts from the People.’ No. 04SR, for Council of Ministers Chairman, Hun Sen, Phnom Penh, 21 March.Google Scholar
Peou, Sorpong. 2019. ‘Cambodia in 2018: A Year of Setbacks and Successes.’ Southeast Asian Affairs, No. 1: 104–19.Google Scholar
Phorn, Bopha and Lewis, Simon. 2012. ‘Hun To Hits Back at Allegations of Drug Smuggling.’ The Cambodia Daily, 28 March. english.cambodiadaily.com/news/hun-to-hits-back-at-allegations-of-drug-smuggling-1576.Google Scholar
Huabao, Renmin. 1973. ‘西哈努克親王視察柬埔寨解放區 [Samdech Sihanouk's Inspection Tour of the Cambodian Liberated Zone].' 人民画报 [China Pictorial] No. 6.Google Scholar
Rice, Stephen. 2022. ‘Criminal Gang Link for Playboy Nephew of Dictator Hun Sen.’ The Australian, 5 August.Google Scholar
Rodan, Garry and Hughes, Caroline. 2014. The Politics of Accountability in Southeast Asia: The Dominance of Moral Ideologies. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Royal Government of Cambodia (RGC), Press and Quick Reaction Unit. 2011. ‘Clarification of the Press and Quick Reaction Unit on Khmer Rouge Trial, Bangkok Post Gets Nearly Everything Wrong.’ 1 December.Google Scholar
Royaume du Cambodge. 1960. Principaux discours et allocutions de S.A.R. Le Prince Norodom Sihanouk, Président du Sangkum Reastr Niyum [Key Speeches and Addresses by H.R.H. Prince Norodom Sihanouk, President of Sangkum Reastr Niyum]. Phnom Penh: Le Ministère de l'Information.Google Scholar
Slocomb, Margaret. 2010. An Economic History of Cambodia in the Twentieth Century. Singapore: National University of Singapore Press.Google Scholar
Soeung, Sophat. 2016. ‘Cambodia in 2015: Accommodating Generational Change.’ Southeast Asian Affairs (2016): 109–28.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Strangio, Sebastian. 2020. Cambodia: From Pol Pot to Hun Sen and Beyond. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tarling, Nicholas. 2014. Britain and Sihanouk's Cambodia. Singapore: National University of Singapore Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Turton, Shaun and Phak, Seangly. 2016. ‘Inside the Hun Family's Business Empire: A Scathing Report by Global Witness Details the Vast Holdings of the Hun Sen Clan.’ Bangkok Post, 7 July. www.bangkokpost.com/thailand/special-reports/1029801/inside-the-hun-familys-business-empire.Google Scholar
Vok, Sokheng. 2015. ‘Premier Fed Up with Insensitive Remarks about Eye.’ The Phnom Penh Post, 23 December. www.phnompenhpost.com/national/premier-fed-insensitive-remarks-about-eye.Google Scholar
World Bank Group. 2023. ‘The World Bank in Cambodia: Overview.’ World Bank Data. www.worldbank.org/en/country/cambodia/overview.Google Scholar
World Bank Group. 2022a. ‘GDP (current US$) – Cambodia.’ World Bank Data. data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.MKTP.CD?locations=KH.Google Scholar
World Bank Group. 2022b. ‘Foreign Direct Investment, Net Inflows (BoP, current US$) – Cambodia.’ World Bank Data. data.worldbank.org/indicator/BX.KLT.DINV.CD.WD?locations=KH.Google Scholar
Ysa, Osman. 2006. The Cham Rebellion: Survivors' Stories from the Villages. Phnom Penh: Documentation Center of Cambodia.Google Scholar