Although political upheavals and mass killings in the Socialist Republic of
Burma (Myanmar) have received a great deal of international attention, scholars
and journalists until now have failed to identify the unique underlying factors
that produced this situation and helped to maintain military dictatorship under
Ne Win's successors. Mya Maung looks into the deeper sources of Burmese
behavior, focusing on the ancient tradition of sacred despotic rule, the
undermining of social and cultural life during the British colonial period, and
the impact of conflicting cultural realities on a Communist military elite whose
attempts to reinstate absolute authority compounded their gross mismanagement of
economic development.
Maung presents an overview