Dissident democratic leaders are exceptional individuals who risk much trying to advance the cause of democracy in authoritarian regimes. This unique and intriguing book employs fine-grained studies of ten dissident leaders in Asia to show their vital role in democratic transformations. The vivid and dramatic accounts of their political struggles reveal how particular institutional, cultural, religious and ethnic conditions affect individual leaders. They also display the powerful challenges, dangers and temptations that dissidents face. One of the most important themes of the book is the way dissident leaders must learn to manage and negotiate the ambiguities and tensions of democratic leadership itself.

John Kane is Professor in the Department of Politics and Public Policy, Griffith University and Deputy Director of the Griffith’s Research Centre for Governance and Public Policy. He works in the fields of political theory, political leadership, political history and public management. He has twice been visiting Professor to the Department of Political Science at Yale University and has written numerous articles on politics and political theory in international journals. He is the author of The Politics of Moral Capital (Cambridge University Press, 2001), and co-editor (with Wayne Hudson) of Rethinking Australian Citizenship (Cambridge University Press, 2000). His latest book is Virtue and Power: The Persistent Moral Dilemma of U.S. Foreign Policy (Yale University Press, 2008).

Haig Patapan is Associate Professor in the Department of Politics and Public Policy, and Director of the Theory and Practice Program of the Centre of Governance and Public Policy, at Griffith University, Australia. His research interests are in political philosophy, comparative constitutionalism, and political leadership. He is the author of Judging Democracy (Cambridge University Press, 2000); co-editor of Globalization and Equality (Routledge, 2004) and of Westminster Legacies: Democracy and Responsible Government in Asia and the Pacific (University of New South Wales Press, 2005); and most recently, author of Machiavelli in Love: the Modern Politics of Love and Fear (Lexington, 2006).

Benjamin Wong is Assistant Professor in the Policy and Leadership Studies Academic Group, National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University. He was formerly a lecturer at the National University of Singapore where he held a joint appointment in the Department of Political Science and the University Scholars Programme. He is currently an instructor in the Leaders in Education Programme. He has published in journals such as Philosophy East and West, Journal of Chinese Philosophy, and Millennium. His teaching and research interests include the history of moral and political philosophy, virtue and leadership, critical thinking, as well as knowledge and inquiry.