Alternative Futures for Governance in Myanmar: 2040

Alternative Futures for Governance in Myanmar: 2040

Volume 3 Number 2, Autumn 2012 pp. 37-53(17)
Research Article
2012/9/1
Samaranayake-Robinson, Wylma C.
This article uses the filter of futures studies to envision an array of alternative futures for what governance in Myanmar could be by the year 2040. The use of the plural “futures” stresses the element of choice concerning what the future will be like. The term “alternative futures” denotes that the future is not fixed and various possibilities should be explored. The article considers four scenarios—whether Myanmar, by 2040, will be a nation that is in a state of governance that: (1) has shown economic growth; (2) has collapsed; (3) has organized itself around an overarching set of traditional and religious values; or (4) has transformed itself into a technologically-controlled society. The article challenges the reader to steer away from the status quo expectations for what this governance should be, and to not too readily echo the sentiments of the non-Myanmar masses that a Myanmar that did not become a “democracy” would be a Myanmar that could be “doomed.”
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