Presidentialism and Democracy in East and Southeast Asia

Marco Bünte is Professor of Asian Politics at the Friedrich-Alexander University in Erlangen-Nuremberg, Germany. His work focuses on questions of democratisation and authoritarian resilience. His publications include the co-edited volumes Politics and Constitutions in Southeast Asia (with B. Dressel, 2017) and Democratization in Post-Suharto Indonesia (with A. Ufen, 2008), also published by Routledge.Mark R. Thompson is Professor of politics and Head of the Department of Asian and International Studies, as well as Director of the Southeast Asia Research Centre at the City University of Hong Kong. A specialist of East Asian politics, his most recent book publications by Routledge are China’s "Singapore Model" and Authoritarian Learning (co-edited with Stephan Ortmann, 2020), Governance and Democracy in the Asia-Pacific (co-edited with Stephen McCarthy, 2020), and the Routledge Handbook of the Contemporary Philippines (co-edited with Eric V. Batalla, 2019). He is co-editor of the Routledge/City University of Hong Kong Southeast Asia Series.

"This book offers important insights into the operation of presidentialism. As the editors point out, cases from East and Southeast Asia are very infrequently invoked in theoretical discussions of presidentialism. By offering theoretically informed analyses of these cases, this book begins to bridge a gaping empirical lacuna and will significantly advance our understanding of how presidential institutions work. It is a welcome addition to the literature on presidentialism." - José Antonio Cheibub, Texas A&M University, USA"This is an important book. The analyses of six presidential and semi-presidential systems are of particular importance for the discussion about the current state of democracy and its future prospects in East and Southeast Asia. The case studies in this volume shows the virtues of empirical analysis of formal political institutions that takes context into account, avoids simplistic generalizations and shows how rich and varied constitutional norms, democratic procedures and informal institutions can be in this part of the world. The editors and the authors are to be much congratulated for bringing these neglected cases to the attention of presidentialism studies." - Aurel Croissant, Heidelberg University, Germany

• List of tables. Preface and acknowledgements. List of contributors. Presidentialism and democracy in East and Southeast Asia: Between resilience and regression. South Korea: Presidentialism in historical and sociological perspective. The Philippines: Imperiled and imperious presidents (but not perilous presidentialism). Indonesia: Presidential politics and democratic regression. Indonesia: Tales of presidentialization. Taiwan: The limited but beneficial role of semi-presidentialism. Timor-Leste: Semi-presidentialism and the tribulations of a new democracy. Myanmar: Hybrid presidentialism and democratic breakdown. Index.