Academics and policy makers have grown increasingly interested in the ways that non-governmental organizations (NGOs) may encourage better governance, democratic politics, and perhaps ultimately a global civil society. However, critics of these organizations have pointed out that NGOs tend to be undemocratic in their internal politics, they speak for groups of people to whom they are not accountable through elections or financial support and they often represent the interests of people in wealthy countries at the expense of truly indigenous people. The main questions revolve around whether, and how NGOs actually lead to democratization, and the ways in which NGOs relate to broader global forces.

In Civil Society, Globalization and Political Change in Asia, Robert Weller has brought together an international group of experts on the subject whose chapters address these questions through a series of extensive case studies from east and southeast Asia including Japan, China, South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Indonesia and Vietnam.