Education, Control, and the Knowledge Economy in Southeast Asia’s Hybrid Regimes

Many hybrid regimes are embracing economic upgrading as an engine of sustainable growth. Several of them have also successfully implemented economic liberalization while maintaining political stability. How do hybrid regimes achieve the goals of economic transformation and political stability simultaneously? I argue that one way they achieve this feat is by embedding institutional arrangements within partnership agreements between knowledge-based economic organizations and the state. Hybrid regimes grant these organizations broad autonomy to develop according to economic demands. However, when necessary, they can also draw upon these institutional arrangements to dexterously respond to shifting national interests. I apply this theoretical framework to  international branch campuses (IBCs) in the hybrid regimes of Singapore and Malaysia. Leveraging archival materials, I examine the cases of Yale-NUS College in Singapore and the University of Nottingham Malaysia. I show that these IBCs have generally enjoyed wide-ranging autonomy in terms of course design and student activities. However, hybrid regimes can still activate institutional arrangements, such as state funding and mandatory course offerings, to (re)align IBC activities with dynamic regime needs. This research speaks to the political economy and political control literature to examine how hybrid regimes achieve economic liberalization without also allowing political liberalization.