Hostname: page-component-cb9f654ff-kl2l2 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-08-08T01:21:50.881Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Electoral Reform in Asia: Institutional Engineering against ‘Money Politics’

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 April 2014

OLLI HELLMANN
OLLI HELLMANN*
Affiliation:
University of SussexO.Hellmann@sussex.ac.uk
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This article argues that major cases of electoral reform across democracies in Asia in recent years can be explained as institutional measures aimed at curbing corruption and ‘money politics’. More specifically, Japan, Taiwan, and Thailand rid themselves of their extreme candidate-centered electoral systems as a means to encourage politicians to invest in ‘clean’ collective party labels, while Indonesia discarded its extremely party-centered electoral system to increase the accountability of individual politicians. The article thus disagrees with scholars who argue that recent electoral reform should be understood as part of a wider project by Asian governments to engineer a majoritarian form of democracy. Instead, the comparative analysis shows that democracies across Asia, in line with global trends in institutional design, have been ‘normalizing’ their electoral systems, moving them closer towards the ideal of electoral ‘efficiency’.

Information

Type
Research Article
Information
Japanese Journal of Political Science , Volume 15 , Issue 2: Quality of Life and Environmentalism in ASEAN , June 2014 , pp. 275 - 298
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2014 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Amorim Neto, Octavio and Cox, Gary W. (1997), ‘Electoral Institutions, Cleavage Structures, and the Number of Parties’, American Journal of Political Science, 41 (1): 149–74.Google Scholar
Borwornsak, Uwanno and Burns, Wayne D. (1998), ‘The Thai Constitution of 1997: Sources and Process’, University of British Columbia Law Review, 32 (2): 227–47.Google Scholar
Cain, Bruce E., Ferejohn, John A., and Fiorina, Morris P. (1984), ‘The Constituency Service Basis of the Personal Vote for US Representatives and British Members of Parliament’, The American Political Science Review, 78 (1): 110–25.Google Scholar
Chang, Eric C. C. (2005), ‘Electoral Incentives for Political Corruption under Open-List Proportional Representation’, Journal of Politics, 67 (3): 716–30.Google Scholar
Carey, John M. and Shugart, Matthew S. (1995), ‘Incentives to Cultivate a Personal Vote: A Rank Ordering of Electoral Formulas’, Electoral Studies, 14 (4): 417–39.Google Scholar
Chang, Alex Chuan-Hsien and Chang, Yu-Tzung (2009), ‘Rational Choices and Irrational Results: The DPP's Institutional Choice in Taiwan's Electoral Reform’, Issues and Studies, 45 (2): 23–60.Google Scholar
Chin, Ko-lin (2003), Heijin: Organized Crime, Business, and Politics in Taiwan, Armonk: East Gate.Google Scholar
Cho, Wonbin (2005), ‘The General Election in South Korea, April 2004’, Electoral Studies, 24 (3): 525–30.Google Scholar
Colomer, Josep M. (2005), ‘It's Parties that Choose Electoral Systems (or, Duverger's Laws Upside Down)’, Political Studies, 53 (1): 1–21.Google Scholar
Colomer, Josep M. (2011), ‘Introduction: Personal and Party Representation’, in Colomer, Josep M. (ed.), Personal Representation: The Neglected Dimension of Electoral Systems, Colchester: ECPR Press, pp. 1–19.Google Scholar
Connors, Michael Kelly (2002), ‘Framing the “People's Constitution”’, in McCargo, Duncan (ed.), Reforming Thai Politics, Copenhagen: NIAS, pp. 37–55.Google Scholar
Cox, Gary W. (1991), ‘SNTV and d’Hondt Are “Equivalent”’, Electoral Studies, 10 (2): 118–32.Google Scholar
Cox, Gary W. and Thies, Michael F. (1998), ‘The Cost of Intraparty Competition: The Single, Nontransferable Vote and Money Politics in Japan’, Comparative Political Studies, 31 (3): 267–91.Google Scholar
Croissant, Aurel and Schächter, Teresa (2010), ‘Institutional Patterns in the New Democracies of Asia: Forms, Origins and Consequences’, Japanese Journal of Political Science, 11 (2): 173–97.Google Scholar
Crouch, Harold (2010), Political Reform in Indonesia after Soeharto, Singapore: ISEAS.Google Scholar
Curtis, Gerald L. (1971), Election Campaigning Japanese Style, New York: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
della Porta, Donatella and Vannucci, Alberto (2012), The Hidden Order of Corruption: An Institutional Approach, Farnham: Ashgate.Google Scholar
Doner, Richard F. and Ramsay, Ansil (2000), ‘Rent-seeking and Economic Development in Thailand’, in Khan, Mushtaq H. and Jomo, K.S. (eds.), Rents, Rent-Seeking and Economic Development: Theory and Evidence in Asia, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 145–81.Google Scholar
Farrell, David M. (2011), Electoral Systems: A Comparative Introduction, 2nd edn, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar
Fell, Dafydd (2005), ‘Political and Media Liberalization and Political Corruption in Taiwan’, China Quarterly (184): 875–93.Google Scholar
Fields, Karl J. (2002), ‘KMT, Inc.: Liberalization, Democratization, and the Future of Politics in Business’, in Gomez, Edmund (ed.), Political Business in East Asia, London: Routledge, pp. 115–54.Google Scholar
Fukui, Haruhiro and Fukai, Shigeko N. (1996), ‘Pork Barrel Politics, Networks, and Local Economic Development in Contemporary Japan’, Asian Survey, 36 (3): 268–86.Google Scholar
Fukui, Haruhiro and Fukai, Shigeko N. (1999), ‘Campaigning for the Japanese Diet’, in Grofman, Bernard, Lee, Sung-Chull, Winckler, Edwin A., and Woodall, Brian (eds.), Elections in Japan, Korea, and Taiwan under the Single Non-Transferable Vote: The Comparative Study of an Embedded Institution, Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press, pp. 121–52.Google Scholar
Göbel, Christian (2012), ‘The Impact of Electoral System Reform on Taiwan's Local Factions’, Journal of Current Chinese Affairs, 41 (3): 69–92.Google Scholar
Golden, Miriam A. (2003), ‘Electoral Connections: The Effects of the Personal Vote on Political Patronage, Bureaucracy and Legislation in Postwar Italy’, British Journal of Political Science, 33 (2): 189–212.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hadiz, Vedi (2003), ‘Reorganizing Political Power in Indonesia: A Reconsideration of so-called “Democratic Transitions”’, Pacific Review, 16 (4): 591–611.Google Scholar
Hellmann, Olli (2011), Political Parties and Electoral Strategy: The Development of Party Organization in East Asia, Basingstoke: Palgrave-Macmillan.Google Scholar
Hellmann, Olli (2013), ‘The Developmental State and Electoral Markets in East Asia: How Strategies of Industrialization Have Shaped Party Institutionalization’, Asian Survey, 53 (4): 653–78.Google Scholar
Hicken, Allen (2006a), ‘How Do Rules and Institutions Encourage Vote Buying?’, in Schaffer, Frederic Charles (ed.), Elections for Sale: The Causes and Consequences of Vote Buying, Boulder and London: Lynne Rienner, pp. 47–60.Google Scholar
Hicken, Allen (2006b), ‘Party Fabrication: Constitutional Reform and the Rise of Thai Rak Thai’, Journal of East Asian Studies, 6 (3): 381–407.Google Scholar
Hicken, Allen (2011), ‘Clientelism’, Annual Review of Political Science, 14: 289–310.Google Scholar
Hicken, Allen and Simmons, Joel W. (2008), ‘The Personal Vote and the Efficacy of Education Spending’, American Journal of Political Science, 52 (1): 109–24.Google Scholar
Johnson Tan, Paige (2002), ‘Anti-party Reaction in Indonesia: Causes and Implications’, Contemporary Southeast Asia, 24 (3): 484–508.Google Scholar
King, Dwight Y. (2003), Half-hearted Reform: Electoral Institutions and the Struggle for Democracy in Indonesia, Westport: Praeger.Google Scholar
Kitschelt, Herbert, Hawkins, Kirk A., Luna, Juan Pablo, Rosas, Guillermo, and Zechmeister, Elizabeth J. (2010), Latin American Party Systems, New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Koellner, Patrick (2009), ‘Japanese Lower House Campaigns in Transition: Manifest Changes or Fleeting Fads?’, Journal of East Asian Studies, 9 (1): 121–49.Google Scholar
Krauss, Ellis S. and Pekkanen, Robert J. (2011), The Rise and Fall of Japan's LDP: Political Party Organizations as Historical Institutions, Ithaca: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Kuhonta, Erik M. (2008), ‘The Paradox of Thailand's 1997 “People's Constitution”: Be Careful what You Wish for’, Asian Survey, 48 (3): 373–92.Google Scholar
Kunicová, Jana and Rose-Ackerman, Susan (2005), ‘Electoral Rules and Constitutional Structures as Constraints on Corruption’, British Journal of Political Science, 35 (4): 573–606.Google Scholar
Lijphart, Arend (1994), Electoral Systems and Party Systems: A Study of Twenty-Seven Democracies, 1945–1990, New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Lijphart, Arend (1999), Patterns of Democracy: Government Forms and Performance in Thirty-Six Countries, New Haven: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Lin, Jih-wen (2006), ‘The Politics of Reform in Japan and Taiwan’, Journal of Democracy, 17 (2): 118–31.Google Scholar
Liu, I-Chou (1999), ‘Campaigning in an SNTV System: The Case of the Kuomintang in Taiwan’, in Grofman, Bernard, Lee, Sung-Chull, Winckler, Edwin A., and Woodall, Brian (eds.), Elections in Japan, Korea, and Taiwan under the Single Non-Transferable Vote: The Comparative Study of an Embedded Institution, Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press, pp. 181–208.Google Scholar
Lyne, Mona M. (2007), ‘Rethinking Economics and Institutions: The Voter's Dilemma and Democratic Accountability’, in Kitschelt, Herbert and Wilkinson, Steven I. (eds.), Patrons, Clients, and Policies: Patterns of Democratic Accountability and Political Competition, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 159–81.Google Scholar
McCargo, Duncan (1998), ‘Alternative Meanings of Political Reform in Contemporary Thailand’, The Copenhagen Journal of Asian Studies, 13 (1): 5–30.Google Scholar
Mietzner, Marcus (2007), ‘Party Financing in Post-Soeharto Indonesia: Between State Subsidies and Political Corruption’, Contemporary Southeast Asia, 29 (2): 238–63.Google Scholar
Moser, Robert G. and Scheiner, E. (2012), Electoral Systems and Political Context: How the Effects of Rules Vary Across New and Established Democracies, New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Murray, David (1998), ‘Thailand's Recent Electoral Reforms’, Electoral Studies, 17 (4): 525–36.Google Scholar
Ockey, James (2000), ‘The Rise of Local Power in Thailand: Provincial Crime, Elections and the Bureaucracy’, in McVey, Ruth (ed.), Money and Power in Provincial Thailand, Copenhagen: NIAS, pp. 74–96.Google Scholar
Ockey, James (2001), ‘Thailand: The Struggle to Redefine Civil–Military Relations’, in Alagappa, Muthiah (ed.), Coercion and Governance: The Declining Political Role of the Military in Asia, Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, pp. 187–208.Google Scholar
Philippine Daily Inquirer (2012), ‘Comelec Chair: Party-List System a Joke’, 28 September, http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/278636/comelec-chair-party-list-system-a-jokeGoogle Scholar
Quimpo, Nathan Gilbert (2005), ‘The Left, Elections, and the Political Party System in the Philippines’, Critical Asian Studies, 37 (1): 3–28.Google Scholar
Ramseyer, J. Mark and Rosenbluth, Frances M. (1997), Japan's Political Marketplace, Cambridge, MA and London: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Reed, Steven R. and Thies, Michael F. (2003), ‘The Causes of Electoral Reform in Japan’, in Shugart, Matthew S. and Wattenberg, Martin P. (eds.), Mixed-Member Electoral Systems: The Best of Both Worlds?, Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 152–72.Google Scholar
Reed, Steven R., Scheiner, Ethan, and Thies, Michael F. (2012), ‘The End of LDP Dominance and the Rise of Party-Oriented Politics in Japan’, The Journal of Japanese Studies, 38 (2): 353–76.Google Scholar
Reilly, Benjamin (2007a), ‘Democratization and Electoral Reform in the Asia-Pacific Region: Is There an “Asian Model” of Democracy?’, Comparative Political Studies, 40 (11): 1350–71.Google Scholar
Reilly, Benjamin (2007b), ‘Electoral Systems and Party Systems in East Asia’, Journal of East Asian Studies, 7 (2): 185–202.Google Scholar
Rock, Michael T. (2013), ‘East Asia's Democratic Developmental States and Economic Growth’, Journal of East Asian Studies, 13 (1): 1–34.Google Scholar
Samuels, David J. (1999), ‘Incentives to Cultivate a Party Vote in Candidate-centric Electoral Systems: Evidence from Brazil’, Comparative Political Studies, 32 (4): 487–518.Google Scholar
Scheiner, Ethan (2006), Democracy without Competition in Japan: Opposition Failure in a One-Party Dominant State, New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Shefter, Martin (1977) ‘Party Patronage: Germany, England, and Italy’, Politics and Society, 7 (4): 403–51.Google Scholar
Shiratori, Rei (1995), ‘The Politics of Electoral Reform in Japan’, International Political Science Review, 16 (1): 79–94.Google Scholar
Shugart, Matthew S. (1998), ‘The Inverse Relationship Between Party Strength and Executive Strength: A Theory of Politicians' Constitutional Choices’, British Journal of Political Science, 28 (1): 1–29.Google Scholar
Shugart, Matthew S. (2001), ‘Electoral “Efficiency” and the Move to Mixed-Member Systems’, Electoral Studies, 20 (2): 173–93.Google Scholar
Shugart, Matthew S. (2003), ‘“Extreme” Electoral Systems and the Appeal of the Mixed-Member Alternative’, in Shugart, Matthew S. and Wattenberg, Martin P. (eds.), Mixed-Member Electoral Systems: The Best of Both Worlds?, Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 25–54.Google Scholar
Shugart, Matthew S. (2005), ‘Comparative Electoral Systems Research: The Maturation of a Field and Challenges Ahead’, in Gallagher, Michael and Mitchell, Paul (eds.), The Politics of Electoral Systems, Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 25–56.Google Scholar
Shugart, Matthew S. and Wattenberg, Martin P. (2001), ‘Mixed-member Electoral Systems: A Definition and Typology’, in Shugart, Matthew S. and Wattenberg, Martin P. (eds.), Mixed-member Electoral Systems: The Best of Both Worlds?, New York: Oxford University Press, pp. 9–24.Google Scholar
Surin, Maisrikrod (2002), ‘Political Reform and the New Thai Electoral System: Old Habits Die Hard?’, Hsieh, John Fuh-sheng and Newman, David (eds.), How Asia Votes, New York: Seven Bridges Press, pp. 187–209.Google Scholar
Surin, Maisrikrod and McCargo, Duncan (1997), ‘Electoral Politics: Commercialisation and Exclusion’, in Hewison, Kevin (ed.), Political Change in Thailand: Democracy and Participation, London and New York: Routledge, pp. 132–48.Google Scholar
Taagapera, Rein and Shugart, Matthew S. (1989), Seats and Votes: The Effects and Determinants of Electoral Systems, New Haven: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Ufen, Andreas (2008a), ‘Political Party and Party System Institutionalization in Southeast Asia: Lessons for Democratic Consolidation in Indonesia, the Philippines and Thailand’, Pacific Review, 21 (3): 327–50.Google Scholar
Ufen, Andreas (2008b), ‘The Evolution of Cleavages in the Indonesian Party System’, GIGA Working Paper 74/2008.Google Scholar
Wurfel, David (1997), ‘The Party-list System: Sectoral or National? Success or Failure?’, Kasarinlan: Philippine Journal of Third World Studies, 13 (2): 19–30.Google Scholar