Presidentialism and democracy in East and Southeast Asia

Abstract

As a contribution to the ongoing global debate about presidentialism, this chapter first assesses how ‘perilous’ presidentialism has been as a political system in East and Southeast Asia due to conflicts between separately elected presidents and legislatures, the key question of the ‘first wave’ of presidentialism studies. It also covers the ‘second wave’ debate about presidentialism, which has concentrated on semi-presidentialism and the interplay of presidentialism with other institutions as well as other variations in institutional design among ‘presidential systems’ of which there are many in East and Southeast Asia. The chapter discusses a third body of literature concerning autocratization with a focus on ‘executive aggrandizement’. In recent years, trends toward growing autocratization globally have led to a rising concern about imperious chief executives and growing personalization of power. It is argued that despite often intense political conflict and temporary instability in the region, presidential systems in the region have often been resilient. This is true both in wealthy countries (South Korea and Taiwan) and developing ones (Indonesia and Timor Leste). Finally, the country case study chapters in the volume are briefly outlined.