This book tackles the important issue of what happened to Asia's political systems after the fall of various political strongmen. It is generally assumed that once strongmen who dictate a nations' politics with a dictatorial or authoritarian fashion fall, the political landscape then drastically changes and the prospects for democracy comes in a matter of time. As the contributors of this book show, the stories were not so simple and straightforward in the contexts of Northeast and Southeast Asia. Democratic governance is only one of the three possible and feasible outcomes, the other two outcomes are either a weakening/ unstable political leadership or a sustained authoritarian system.