Available at Amazon: Link _________________________________________________________________________
Political Patronage in Europe? Yes, but no excuse for Southeast Asia, the cost is high… 22 February 2013
Media as political instrument (or weapon?) 22 February 2013
See also new post: Southeast Asian Media: Trust is good, control is better…
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Yes, it is an art indeed! And political skills can be learned and refined.
Partyforumseasia: An authoritative handbook on politics and (political) economy of the region with a wide range of quality contributions: The headlines of the sections are: The changing landscape of power, States and regimes, Markets and governance, Civil society and participation, Violence and state authority, and The region and the world.
Robison’s introduction classifies three main ideological and scholarly traditions in the literature on Southeast Asia, namely the American political science, political economy in the British and European tradition, and public choice/rational choice political economy and New Institutional Economics. As useful as this analysis of the theoretical camps and their internal disputes is, the handbook provides less insight into the reality of political parties on the ground. What Robison calls “debates in parallel universes” among the camps is certainly unavoidable in the academic world. Partyforumsea tries to add the mundane facts of party politics in Southeast Asia.
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Votes, Party Systems, and Democracy in Asia, Routledge 2012
Author: Jungug Choi, Konkuk University, Seoul, Korea
Partyforumseasia:. Inspired byDuverger, Rae,Sartori, etc.,Choi’s ambition is “to create a similar major volume (…) with regard to new Asian democracies”. (Preface) He also tries to overcome traditional research specializations and cover all of Asia. In his case studies, though,Choi examines only Indonesia, Korea, the Philippines, and India. Seen from thePartyforum’s practical approach to party politics, the book is written for theoretical political scientists, too difficult reading for party practitioners. And fascinated withDuverger’s Law,Taagapera and Shugart’s “generalizedDuverger’sRuel” and Cox’s M+1 rule,Choi seems a bit too much searching for facts which fit into his theories. On the background of his intense statistical and mathematical effort, some of the conclusions sound rather simple, e.g. “…the largest party’s vote share is independent of electoral systems”, or “Fragmented political elites lead to a fragmented political party system.” (Conclusions,pp126ff). Party leaders and campaign strategists may not find much advice here, but they are notChoi’s target group anyway.
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November 8th, 2012
Looking within: dominant party de-alignment in Malaysia and Singapore
Author: Bridget Welsh, SMU
Link: http://www.eastasiaforum.org/2012/11/08/looking-within-party-politics-in-singapore-and-malaysia/
October 28th, 2012
Party Politics in Southeast Asia – Clientelism and Electoral Competition in Indonesia, Thailand and the Philippines, Edited by Dirk Tomsa, Andreas Ufen, Series: Routledge Contemporary Southeast Asia Series Link to Routledge:
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June 23d, 2012
The state of democracy in Southeast Asia
Link: http://www.eastasiaforum.org/2012/06/23/the-state-of-democracy-in-southeast-asia/
Author: Chayut Setboonsarng, CARI
Political Party Forum Southeast Asia 