Michael Malley is an Assistant Professor of political science and has taught at Ohio University since 1999. He earned his MA and PhD in Political Science at the University of Wisconsin, an MA in Asian Studies at Cornell University, and a BS from the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University.

TEACHING
Dr. Malley teaches mainly in the field of comparative politics with special emphasis on Southeast Asian politics and political economy. Undergraduates are strongly encouraged to take his course on the Politics of Developing Areas (POLS 340) before attempting upper level courses on Southeast Asia. These include Politics of Southeast Asia (POLS 447A) and Political Economy of Southeast Asia (POLS 447B). Typically POLS 340 is offered twice each year and the courses on Southeast Asia are each offered once per year.

Graduate students may take either of the courses on Southeast Asia (POLS 547A and POLS 547B). In addition, Dr. Malley offers occasionally offers a seminar on special topics in Southeast Asian politics (POLS 648). In the past, these have included the region’s role in international relations as well as social movements there and the Third World more broadly.

During Spring 2004, Dr. Malley will offer a new class for advanced undergraduates and graduate students, called Territorial Politics and Policy (POLS 490G/590G). This course will address four key questions: how should political power be shared between national and subnational governments? How has power been shared between such governments? Why are so many countries pursuing policies of decentralization? And what are the effects of decentralization? The course will have substantial Southeast Asian content, but students will be expected to adopt a broader, comparative perspective.

RESEARCH
Since the late 1980s, Dr. Malley has conducted extensive field research in Indonesia. His research there has focused on processes of state formation, especially the centralization of political power from the 1950s to 1990s. Part of that research was published as “Regions: Centralization and Resistance,” in Donald K. Emmerson, ed., Indonesia beyond Suharto (1999). In addition, he has devoted attention to Indonesia’s recent political changes, as reflected in “Beyond Democratic Elections: Indonesia Embarks on a Protracted Transition,” Democratization” (Autumn 2000).

Recently, Dr. Malley has turned his attention to subnational politics and the policy of decentralization. The interaction between the processes of decentralization and democratization are the subject of his recent chapter, “New Rules, Old Structures, and the Limits of Democratic Decentralisation,” in Local Power and Politics in Indonesia: Decentralisation and Democratisation, Edward Aspinall and Greg Fealy, eds. (2003).

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