Democracy In Asia Research Articles

Regional Analysis of U.S. Lumber Exports for Important Hardwood Species from 1990 to 2020

Abstract In 1990, Europe, North America, and the Asian democracies of Japan, Taiwan, and South Korea (JTK) were the major export markets for U.S. hardwood lumber and oak species accounted for 59 percent of total exports. In the 1990s, shipments to Europe and North America increased, while shipments to JTK declined. During the early 2000s, exports to China and Vietnam (CHV) increased. The worldwide recession of 2009 caused exports to decline in all regions, and oak species accounted for 37 percent of total shipments that year. Since 2010, CHV has become the most important export market for all species except maple. In 2020, oak species accounted for 43 percent of total export volume, and walnut ranked third in value of shipments. An examination of imputed prices found that exports tend to be composed of mid- to higher-quality hardwood lumber. Since 1997, real prices of exported lumber have declined for most species, and this decline occurred concurrently with increased U.S. sawtimber volume. In the 1990s, increased exports expanded the market for domestically produced hardwood lumber. Since the early 2000s, increased lumber exports have partially countered reduced domestic demand and have acted as a hedge against greater declines in overall demand for U.S. hardwood lumber.

ИНДИЯ И ЯПОНИЯ: ЭВОЛЮЦИЯ ФОРМАТА СТРАТЕГИЧЕСКОГО СОТРУДНИЧЕСТВА

In the 21 st century, India–Japan strategic cooperation is gradu- ally reaching a new level. Earlier the relations between countries were more declarative, but the situation has changed since the beginning of the 2000s. New agreements are being concluded, and the y assume practical implemen- tation in addition to the frameworks. On the one hand, for Japan, India is becoming more important not only as an economic partner (a huge market for Japanese industrial products and digital technologies), but also as a like- minded partner in curbing China’s trade and economic expansion. On the other hand, in partnership with Japan India sees opportunities to attract Japanese investment in the development of domestic infrastructure, and also seeks a moderate expansion of military-technical cooperation, since it cor - responds to the policy of maintaining the country’s “non-aligned” status and its equidistance from existing geopolitical coalitions. In addition, India, that calls itself the “largest Asian democracy”, currently has territorial disputes with Pakistan and China, so a strategic partnership with Japan, which clearly interprets China’s growing influence as a challenge to its national interests in the Indo-Pacific region, can somewhat strengthen India’s position in the international arena. Thus, over the past two decades, the bedrock for further strengthening the strategic partnership between India and Japan has been formed, and it is obvious that the development of that partnership is about to have a great impact on the future geopolitical configuration in the Indo- Pacific region.

How does party organisation develop beyond clientelism in new democracies? Evidence from South Korea, 1992–2016

ABSTRACT This article analyses the organisational development of political parties in new democracies. In particular, focusing on Korean cases, it extends the existing discussions over party organisation into Asian democracies by examining the ways of overcoming the traditions of clientelism. Employing a dimensional approach, the evaluation relies on three core characteristics of party organisation by utilising a novel source of the official data of party organisation in Korea and a data of the Comparative Manifesto Project. Covering the long-term variations on organisational development, 1992–2018, it finds that Korean parties have experienced the waning power of the Party Central Office and the weakening ties with civil society. Despite these characteristics of development of a cartel-party type organisation, analysis does not confirm the expected of convergence of programmatic appeals between parties. These mixed findings lead to the conclusion that Korean parties have developed toward not a catch-all organisation, but a loosely cartelised organisation.

Federal and Political Party Reforms in Asia: Is There a New Model of Federal Democracy Emerging in Ethnically Diverse Countries in Asia?

AbstractHow do ethnically divided countries create inclusive and stable democratic institutions? Why do some kinds of federalism fail while others evolve? Scholars looking for answers to these kinds of questions have tended to focus on the West. Yet there are important lessons arising from the substantial democratic and federal reforms that have taken place in Asia over the last few decades. These reforms signal a new model of federal democracy in Asia, comprising multilevel ethnoterritorial federalism, mixed-majoritarianism and a party system that includes both ethnic and multi-ethnic parties. This model has emerged as a response to ethnic conflict and secession risks and reflects the high diversity of clustered communities and cross-cutting cleavages. Despite its overarching majoritarianism, the federal model has led to highly fragmented party systems and coalition governments, with positive implications for democratic stability. Together, these features go some way towards blending otherwise conflicting consociational and centripetal paradigms.

Populism and Muslim democracies

AbstractPopulism has been on the rise from the United States to India. Populist leaders have used the veneer of a national crisis to legitimize a leadership that dignifies a section of the population over another. The strategy of cultural populists could lead to terrible consequences to those who may not subscribe to the political beliefs of the leaders. This article examines cultural populists in several Muslim democracies. Applying the method of agreement and method of difference together with calculation of the effective number of parties, this article analyzes the phenomenon of cultural populism in Indonesia, Malaysia and Tunisia. It is argued that political diversity in a democratic system encourages the rise of cultural populism. This paper adds to the growing literature on populism through a comparative analysis of Muslim democracies in Asia and elsewhere.

Populist political ideation and communication of gubernatorial candidates in Indonesia’s 2018 gubernatorial elections: Anti-establishment views, secular nationalism and Islamism as ideational-populist elements

Populism has been evolving across the globe. Knowledge of the ways and degree to which political actors in Asian democracy exploited anti-establishment views, secular nationalism and Islamism as ideational elements when they established populist political communication strategies for local elections has, however, been under-developed. Focusing on such issues, this work selects gubernatorial candidates who ran in Indonesia’s 2018 gubernatorial elections as cases, using extracts from materials they posted on their Facebook pages. The findings are as follows. Candidates did not merely advocate anti-establishment views, but also adopted secular nationalism and Islamism as ideational-populist elements for developing populist political communication strategies. Those who exploited anti-economic elites favoured establishing secular nationalist and Islamic-based populist political communication strategies inclusively. Those who propagated anti-economic, anti-political and anti-bureaucratic elites instead greatly preferred advancing an Islamic populist political communication strategy. However, through employing such efforts, only few succeeded in these elections.

Does policy motivation drive party activism? A study of party activists in three Asian democracies

Studies of party activism highlight that party activists are driven by various motivations and that these affect their level of activism. However, it remains unclear whether policy-motivated activists are more engaged in party activities than those motivated by other incentives and whether the motivation–activism link varies with party characteristics. This article investigates these questions by focusing on political actors linking parties and voters in the local community. I use a party activist survey data set collected during recent national election campaigns in three Asian young democracies: Taiwan, Korea, and Mongolia. The results demonstrate the prominence of policy motivation as an impetus for activists’ intraparty commitment. I also found that the positive effect of policy motivation is especially robust in small parties, while it is muted in large parties and that party membership increases the probability of intraparty commitment, challenging the widely held belief that formal membership is pointless in Asian parties.

Interactions between Constitutionalism and Authoritarianism in Asian Democracies: A Japan-Taiwan Comparison

Authoritarian states in Asia often borrow legal institutions from their democratic counterparts for the purposes of nation-building and economic development, with some of them subsequently going through a democratic transition. Japan and Taiwan have followed this trajectory and dealt with very similar international and domestic dynamics surrounding their constitutional revisions. During this process, the politically dominant parties of both countries engineered their legitimacy against constitutionality, which were not closely intertwined. This essay compares their recent constitutional revisions (Japan’s in 2015 and Taiwan’s throughout the 1990s) and suggests that democratic Japan appears to have acted in a more authoritarian fashion than authoritarian Taiwan. This essay analyses this phenomenon through the lens of authoritarian legality and its legacy. It argues that the constitutional dualism theory is ill-suited for understanding Japan’s informal constitutional revision, and that the dynamics of geopolitics in Asia and the two countries’ socio-political structures, alongside the influence of authoritarian legality, better explain their different attitudes towards constitutionalism.

The Perils of Parliamentarism: Chasing the Flows of the Third Wave of Democratization in Asia

What is the present state of democracy among the Asian countries that were (re)democratized during the third wave of democratization? What makes the differences? Why some specific factors play prominent role on the deepening of democracy among them? These are the primary questions of this study. The findings from ten young Asian democracies are as follows. First, all the Asian countries that (re)democratized during the third wave of democratization are practicing democratic system at present. Six of them experienced the breakdowns, while four remain as a continuous democracy. Second, out of eleven structural and institutional factors, examined in this research, only the presidential system has clearer positive impact and economic development has a partial effect on the deepening of democracy. Indirect dictatorship or dominancy of family politics in the parliamentary democracies is found as main reason for the perils of parliamentarism among young Asian democracies.

Preface: The Structure and Agency of the Retreat of Democracy in Asia

Preface: The Structure and Agency of the Retreat of Democracy in Asia

Explaining Gender Gaps in Indonesian Legislative Committees

AbstractParliamentary committees are central in most modern legislatures in the world as key decisions are often made at this level. Consequently, women’s substantial representation in parliament is frequently measured by the appointment of women in powerful and prestigious committees. However, there is relatively little knowledge about how the politics of committee assignment operates, especially in Asian democracies, home to the majority of the world’s women. In this article, the Indonesian case is used to explore two issues, which are the gendered division of committees and the impact of Islam as a party ideology in assigning women to committees. Using a quantitative approach, this article examines a unique dataset of committee assignments in Indonesia’s House of Representatives (DPR) from 2004 to 2014. Interviews with sitting parliamentarians are also used to complement the statistical analysis. The results show that gender bias is an enduring characteristic of Post-Suharto parliamentary politics and Islam as a party ideology is not solely accountable for this disparity in committee allocations.

Introduction: Democratic Hopes and Challenges

Western liberal democracy is in crisis. At the same time, since the end of the Cold War, new regions of the world and actors have risen to prominence. Contemporary discourse emphasizes, in particular, the rise of East Asia (including the Northeast and Southeast Asian sub-regions) and the empowerment of middle powers. This Special Issue of Asian Affairs: An American Review looks at the extent to which mid-sized East Asian states with significant democratic heritage embody hope for the liberal democratic project, and also the challenges they face. Furthermore, it considers how the analysis of the mode of interaction between state, economy and society allows a determination of the democratic conditions of any given country. The articles in this Special Issue originate from a project supported by the Asia Pacific department of the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung (FES) exploring regional interdependencies of democratization in Asia. This introduction explores the theoretical framework of the project and elaborates further on case selection.

Corruption predictability and corruption voting in Asian democracies

I examine how the structure of corrupt exchanges between voters and politicians—an important-yet-underexplored form of informal institutions—shapes voters’ electoral behavior toward corruption. I argue that when voters have a clear idea of whom to bribe to secure desired services and how much they need to offer, they are less likely to engage in corruption voting and hold corrupt incumbents electorally accountable for their malfeasance. Utilizing the World Business Environment Survey on corruption predictability and the Asian Barometer survey on voters’ electoral behaviors, I report empirical evidence that institutionalized corruption promotes greater electoral tolerance of corrupt politicians in Asian democracies. The results hold against a number of robustness checks. The paper thus furthers our understanding of the effect of informal political institutions on corruption voting as well as Asia’s corruption exceptionalism.

Social spending and democratic institutions in Southeast Asia

PurposeThis paper aims to analyse how democratic institutions affects social spending formations in the context of developing countries. Furthermore, this essay will also challenge the theory that the government system (majoritarian versus consensus democracy) influences the magnitude of social spending and welfare commitment, especially in Southeast Asian democracies, namely, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and the Philippines.Design/methodology/approachThis research uses descriptive statistics and qualitative data to match social spending with the development of democratisation in four cases.FindingsThe main argument is whether the presence of democratic institutions encourages the government to be more open, citizen-oriented and responsive or whether the inclusive political conditions will create more open public participation in the policymaking process. Thus, in the context of developing countries, public participation will be more likely to demand social policies.Research limitations/implicationsIt has not been able to undertake a more detailed impact evaluation assessment of the development and change of democratic institutions towards policy outcomes within a shorter temporal scope. In addition, this thesis does not also provide details or explanations about the interaction process between particular democratic institutions and specific social policy sectors.Practical implicationsThe process of interactions between particular electoral systems. For instance, the contribution to the emergence of policy in the health services sector or conducting research in normative democratic institutions such as public awareness of the importance of public participation in shaping and directing the implementation of poverty reduction policies could be studied, by using the historical institutionalism approach.Originality/valueThe impact of certain political institutions on public policy has become a very important discussion in the new institutionalism perspective. Social policy (social spending) as a manifestation of government’s commitment towards welfare is the result of institutional arrangement. In the context of developing countries, where social policy is needed to fulfill the basic needs of citizens, it is important to identify what kind of institutional formations are conducive to the development of social policy. This essay will analyse how democratic institutions affects social spending formations in the context of developing countries.

동아시아 민주주의 3국 시민들의 복지 태도 결정 요인에 대한 연구: 아시아 가치와 제도 신뢰의 영향을 중심으로

동아시아 민주주의 3국 시민들의 복지 태도 결정 요인에 대한 연구: 아시아 가치와 제도 신뢰의 영향을 중심으로

경제적 낙관주의와 복지 태도: 동아시아 3국의 사례

경제적 낙관주의와 복지 태도: 동아시아 3국의 사례

The Personal is Political: Gendered Morality in Indonesia's Halal Consumerism

AbstractRecent scholarship on the shift to the right in Asian democracies has predominantly been focused on political organisations, leaving social movements outside of them largely understudied. This article brings forth the link between the rise of right-wing politics in Indonesia—often associated with Islamic populist narratives—and the role of the market. It studies the way halal consumerism has helped shape the narrative of the ummah, an idea that was mobilised during the largest religiously-driven demonstration in the capital city Jakarta on 2 December 2016. By explicating the melding of Islamic piety and consumerism, this study illustrates how halal consumerism aid middle-class Muslims in navigating the neo-liberal social world they live in. The article uses survey data to explore the social status and religious views of participants in the mass rally, and delves deeper through interviews with urban, middle-class female Muslims who envision a cross-class ummah that defends Islam against an imagined oppressor. This paper discusses their role in social process related to politico-religious conservatism, specifically in defending the ideal marriage and family through market mechanisms. Through this analysis, I find that the combination of Islamic morality and neo-liberal values politicises the domestic and traditional role of the female Muslim; this has contributed to social changes that hinder democratic developments.

Popular support for legislatures in Asia

ABSTRACTLegislatures have long served as the fundamental organ of democratic rule. They bring together disparate views and competing preferences in one venue as an effort to introduce a equitable means of compromise to produce policies that affect those whom legislatures represent. They also check the authoritarian tendencies of other government actors, notably the executive, and create the conditions for institutionalised, rather than violent, debate. The legislatures of democratic Asia are no different. In this paper, I evaluate popular support for assemblies across the democracies of Asia, in terms of their legitimacy and use as a check on power. Traditional measures of support, including age, education, and liberal values, indicate growing support for legislatures. However, the significant effects of economic evaluations and the limited attachment to political parties suggest that the legislatures of Asia are still far from consolidating their role as assemblies that support democratic regimes in the region.

Political Leadership for Crisis Management: A Comparative Case Study of Asian Leaders

<p><em>This study looks at the comparative analysis of the political leadership and thoughts of two Asian leaders. There are different thoughts and political approaches attributed to Lee Kuan Yew and Kim Dae-Jung. Some of the key concepts include political leadership, Asian values, and democracy in Asia. The qualitative analysis of different resources revealed and proved several theories and views of Lee Kuan Yew and Kim Dae-Jung. It establishes different thoughts and political leadership of the two leaders, a scenario that can help future leaders to align the policies that can enhance, social, political and economic development in different Asian countries. This study also establishes the importance of their different view on Asian values and how did they overcome the national crisis. Although Lee Kuan Yew and Kim Dae-Jung had different opinions on Asian Values, both work positively towards the development of their countries.</em></p>

Answering economic inequality other than with populism and protectionism: the Danish formula of inclusive capitalism

EU politics have experienced vast changes since 2014 from the rise of anti-globalization populist right parties to Brexit. Similarly, populist and nationalist sentiments also appeared in some Southeast Asian democracies such as Taiwan and the Philippines. Despite their national and regional differences, one common characteristic of these developments was that it was those left-behind and economically disadvantaged voters who delivered such results. Trade protectionism and populist nationalism were their answers to ever-growing economic inequality. The growing economic inequality thus has become a common policy challenge to both European and Asian leadership. While political and business elites appealed to inclusive capitalism to address the economic inequality, no holistic, realistic policy combination was ever proposed. This paper is an attempt to translate inclusive capitalism from aspiration to systematic policy actions by employing an Inclusive Development Index (IDI) to the study of an indicative country—Denmark. It was found that those areas which Denmark has been performing well in were areas surrounding acquired equal opportunities: quality public education, health and active labor market policies for developing personal capability from childhood to adulthood, and uncorrupted public services and business-friendly legal and tax regimes for facilitating market competition from business creation to operation, especially for small businesses. Governance was a key to the functioning of this self-producing policy ecosystem, centrally staged as a big investor and enabler for both labor and capital. The distinctive thinking underpinning policy-making—treating economic policies as social policies and vice versa—reconciled economic growth and distributive justice simultaneously, resulting in inclusive capitalism in day-to-day realities. The Danish formula has shown that it was not capitalism that needed to reform, it was the prevailing liberalist orthodoxy that guided governance that was in desperate need of an overhaul.