Participation In Asia Research Articles

Understanding the Socioeconomic Determinants of Religiosity and Religious Participation in Asia

While there has been much research on the effect of religiosity on physical and mental health, the socioeconomic determinants of religiosity are not well understood. Using data from different waves of the World Values Survey, this paper analyzes the socioeconomic patterns and determinants of religiosity in nine Asian countries—China, Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Pakistan, the Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam. The analysis suggests that religiosity varies significantly with age and sex, as well as with relative income, absolute income, socioeconomic status, education, and employment status. There are large differences in “innate” religiosity across the nine countries even after controlling for these socioeconomic characteristics. The results thus suggest that some of the widely observed effects of religiosity on health in the literature may simply reflect the associations of religiosity with background variables like education and socioeconomic status.

Exploring Relationships Between Nonprofit Participation and Political Participation in Asian Context

One essential role of nonprofits (NPOs) is to provide opportunities for people to participate in movements and resolve collective issues. This study investigates how NPO participation affects participation in political activities in Asian countries. Specifically, we ask how nonprofit engagement fosters active political activities in Asia. Using the Asian Barometer Survey, which provides information on NPO participation, political contact, and political participation activities, this study empirically examines the correlation between nonprofit participation and political participation in Asia. Our findings confirmed a positive relationship between nonprofit participation and political participation in Asia when controlling individual characteristics, location, and time fixed effects. Furthermore, our analyses further verify moderating effects of political regimes on this relationship, especially for the authoritarian and hybrid regimes. Our findings suggest that regulations, policies, and self-governance should be designed to cultivate a healthy NPO sector in terms of growth, diversity, and accessibility to citizens.

Beyond Quotas: Addressing Barriers to Women’s Political Participation in Asia

This study examines the proliferation of gender quotas in Asian national politics, prompted by global advocacy for a more gender-inclusive political landscape. While these quotas have augmented the numerical presence of women, their substantive representation remains elusive. Instances from Japan, Vietnam, Taiwan, Bangladesh, and Korea provide insights into various barriers such as violence, sexual harassment, societal expectations, cultural stigmas, and institutional gate keeping. These challenges underscore a quantitative rather than a qualitative focus of gender quotas. The study proposes remedies, including the cultivation of inspirational female leaders and structural reforms aimed at dismantling entrenched barriers to women’s political participation.

Income Inequality and Political Participation in Asia

This paper examines the impact of income inequality on political participation in Asia. Both conventional conflict theory and relative power theory suggest that inequality affects political participation, but they predict opposite directions. In this paper, I argue that the effects of inequality on participation depend on the type of political action: radical or institutional. To substantiate this claim, I analyze four Asian Barometer Survey waves from 2001 to 2014. Using nested models, I find that the effect of income inequality is conditional: it is positively associated with violent activities; has no significant correlation with less radical forms of protest; and is negatively associated with institutional actions, namely voting and persuading others to vote. While the effect does not depend on income level, regime type matters for certain activities. Political capacity, the perception of powerlessness, and trust in government are other potential factors in the relationship.

Gender gaps in political participation in Asia

Recent scholarship shows that the gender gap in political activity has diminished, particularly in Western societies. Still unknown is how gender matters for political participation in Asia. Using the 2010 Asian Barometer Survey, this article analyzes the gender gap in multiple forms of political participation in 13 countries. It also investigates how individual-level characteristics mediate the differences in men’s and women’s political participation. The article shows that Asian men and women overwhelmingly vote at an equal rate in elections, but gender gaps persist in other types of political action. This study shows that gender remains the strongest predictor of political participation and suggests that Asian women remain marginalized in the political arena. The results have important implications for how to progress gender equality in the region.

Maternal Employment and Family Socioeconomic Status: Unique Relations to Maternal Stress, Parenting Beliefs, and Preschoolers' Adjustment in Taiwanese Families.

With the rapid increase in women's labor force participation in Asia, a greater understanding of the impact of maternal employment on parenting and child development in Asia is much needed. The present study examined the concurrent relations between maternal employment status and family characteristics (e.g., socioeconomic status/SES, family structure) in Taiwanese families, and the unique relations of maternal employment and family SES to maternal stress, parenting beliefs, and preschoolers' socioemotional adjustment. In a school-based sample of 511 preschoolers (age range = 4-6 years, 52.9% girls), their mothers, and teachers in Taipei and Taitung, mothers reported their employment status, family characteristics, perceived stress and parenting beliefs. Mothers and teachers rated preschoolers' adjustment. Results showed that compared to unemployed mothers in Taiwan, employed mothers were more likely to come from families with higher SES and fewer children, and nuclear (vs. extended) families. Structural equation modeling was used to test the hypothesized model. Mothers from lower-SES families reported higher stress and higher endorsement of coercive parenting, and lower endorsement of authoritative parenting than mothers from higher-SES families. Controlling for SES, employed mothers endorsed higher coercive parenting than unemployed mothers. Mothers' endorsement of authoritative parenting was associated with better child adjustment by mothers' (but not teachers') reports, whereas maternal stress and coercive parenting were associated with poorer child adjustment (by mothers' reports only). In sum, maternal employment was intricately associated with family SES in Taiwanese families, and the two contextual factors shape parenting and child adjustment in different processes.

Broken back? Efficacy and participation in Asia’s democracies

Previous scholarship describes an inconsistent role for democratic institutions in driving political participation. Some research has detected signs of attachment leading to greater engagement while others observe a negative, statistical relationship (Levi and Stoker, 2000). In the liberal and electoral democracies of Asia, where support for democratic values appears to be growing (Chu and Huang, 2010; Sanborn, 2015), institutions have taken an outsized role in an individual’s decision to participate. This may be reflective of a ‘broken back’ form of democratization, where an engaged citizenry is continually frustrated by poor performing government actors (Rose and Shin, 2001). In this article, I evaluate the role of efficacy, internal and external, on the decision to attend rallies, participate in campaigns, and contact officials. I find that citizens engage in these actions when they are internally engaged in politics and frustrated with government performance. While this finding offers a simple explanation for the decision to participate, it also signifies the obstacles to democratic consolidation posed by poor-performing institutional actors.

What Can Boost Female Labor Force Participation in Asia?

What Can Boost Female Labor Force Participation in Asia?

What Can Boost Female Labor Force Participation in Asia?

Both Japan and Korea are trying to boost female labor force participation (FLFP) as they face the challenges of a rapidly aging population. Though FLFP has generally been on a rising trend, the female labor force in both countries is skewed towards non-regular employment despite women’s high education levels. This paper empirically examines what helps Japan and Korea to increase FLFP by type (i.e., regular vs. non-regular employment), using the SVAR model. In so doing, we compare these two Asian countries with two Nordic countries Norway and Finland. The main findings are: (i) child cash allowances tend to reduce the proportion of regular female employment in Japan and Korea, (ii) the persistent gender wage gap encourages more non-regular employment, (iii) a greater proportion of regular female employment is associated with higher fertility, and (iv) there is a need for more public spending on childcare for age 6-11 in Japan and Korea to help women continue to work.

World Christianity as a Women's Movement

INTERNATIONAL BULLETIN OF MISSIONARY RESEARCH, Vol. 30, No. 4 T recognition that Christian affiliation is shifting to the Southern Hemisphere has released tremendous academic energy on issues of Christianity as a world religion, and it has provoked studies of the particular nature of faith and religious participation in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. Scholars like Andrew Walls have been arguing for years that the majority Christians of the non-Western world should be put in the center of scholarly agendas. Yet it appears that the same path is being trod as in other fields of history, namely, to bury women’s participation in a larger narrative, in this case one called “world Christianity.” What would the study of Christianity in Africa, Asia, and Latin America look like if scholars put women into the center of their research? In this article I argue that the current demographic shift in world Christianity should be analyzed as a women’s movement, based on the fact that even though men are typically the formal, ordained religious leaders and theologians, women constitute the majority of active participants.1 First, I examine the evidence for women’s presumed majority in world Christianity. Statements that women are “naturally” more religious than men or that women “always” outnumber men in churches need to be analyzed or else they fail to do justice to the complexity and diversity of women’s experiences of Christianity. Second, I survey recent studies that examine gender-based reasons for conversion. Why do women convert to Christianity? Are there gender-based factors for women’s conversion that extend across different cultures?

Education and Labor Market Participation of Women in Asia: Evidence from Five Countries

This paper contributes to the understanding of household decisions of womens labor market participation in Asian societies. It considers the possible impacts of a wifes education on labor participation decisions within the context of a collective model of household bargaining. An empirical analysis of the determinants of participation of married women is also carried out through the use of household-level data from Indonesia Korea the Philippines Sri Lanka and Thailand. It is noted that this cross-country analysis using comparable data allows for the comparison of the determinants of womens participation in countries with different income levels stages of development and cultural characteristics. Overall results indicate that the determinants of womens labor force participation rates in Asia vary dramatically across countries. Evidence suggests that there is no single relationship between womens education and labor force participation in Asia. Hence it is important to consider the cultural context when trying to predict the effect of policies that increase womens education levels on womens participation in the labor force.