Party System Institutionalization in Asia

'Asian cases have too often been overlooked by scholars of parties and party systems. Hicken and Kuhonta's superbly edited volume not only moves Asia to center stage, but makes a theoretical contribution in its own right. Their key argument - rooted in history - that authoritarianism begets institutionalization represents a major challenge to established political science theory.' Benjamin Reilly, Dean, Sir Walter Murdoch School of Public Policy and International Affairs, Murdoch University, Western Australia

'Party System Institutionalization in Asia provides an extensive empirical assessment in twelve country chapters, along with a coherent and significant argument that tracks the legacies of authoritarian constraints on party formation, internal organization, and dominant strategies. It extends the emerging movement of historical institutionalism in the study of political party systems by highlighting the possibility for institutionalized parties to endure despite changes in regime and their sustained impact in structuring the party system over the long-term.' Rachel Beatty Riedl, Northwestern University

'Editing a book on political parties in Asia is an ambitious task due to the sheer breadth of regime types, levels of institutionalization, and background conditions in the region. Allen Hicken and Erik Kuhonta have succeeded in assembling a talented set of contributors to produce a book that is impressive in both its theoretical coherence and its attention to particular cases. Moreover, the book's span across democracies and autocracies and its close attention to the historical roots of contemporary parties make it an important contribution to our comparative understanding of political parties and party systems globally.' Benjamin Smith, University of Florida Research Foundation Professor, University of Florida

' ... the country studies of political parties in the Asian region will be useful for readers, especially as there is a theoretical coherence to the chapters ... [which] are likely to be of great interest to party institutionalization aficionados while adding Asian cases to a theoretical literature dominated by Europe and Latin America is as necessary as it is welcome.' Kevin Hewison, Southeast Asian Studies

'In Party System Institutionalization in Asia, Allen Hicken and Erik Kuhonta assemble an impressive series of chapters with a quality and analytical coherence that is difficult to achieve in an edited volume. ... This is a worthwhile volume, containing chapters that can be assigned in class as standalone pieces while reaching a level of rigour that will inform future research.' Nathan Allen, Pacific Affairs

Allen Hicken is Associate Professor of Political Science, a research associate professor at the Center for Political Studies, and director of the Center for Southeast Asian Studies at the University of Michigan. He is the author of Building Party Systems in Developing Democracies (Cambridge, 2009) and the editor of Politics of Modern Southeast Asia: Critical Issues in Modern Politics (2010). His articles have appeared in the American Journal of Political Science, the Journal of Politics, Comparative Political Studies, the Journal of East Asian Studies, Asian Survey, and Electoral Studies. Erik Martinez Kuhonta is Associate Professor of Political Science and a member of the Institute for the Study of International Development at McGill University. He is the author of The Institutional Imperative: The Politics of Equitable Development in Southeast Asia (2011), which was short-listed for the 2012 Canadian Political Science Association Prize in Comparative Politics. He is also co-editor of Southeast Asia in Political Science: Theory, Region, and Qualitative Analysis (2008). His articles have appeared in Comparative Political Studies, Contemporary Southeast Asia, Asian Survey, and Pacific Review.

1. Introduction: rethinking party system institutionalization in Asia Allen Hicken and Erik Martinez Kuhonta; 2. The antidemocratic potential of party system institutionalization: Malaysia as morality tale? Meredith L. Weiss; 3. Institutionalized succession and hegemonic party cohesion in Singapore Netina Tan; 4. Party system institutionalization in Japan Kenneth Mori McElwain; 5. Long in the making: Taiwan's institutionalized party system Tun-jen Cheng and Yung-min Hsu; 6. The making and unmaking of the Communist Party and the single-party system of Vietnam Tuong Vu; 7. The institutionalization of the Communist Party and the party system in China Yongnian Zheng; 8. Party system institutionalization in India Csaba Nikolenyi; 9. Party and party system institutionalization in Cambodia Sorpong Peou; 10. Explaining party system institutionalization in Indonesia Paige Johnson Tan; 11. South Korea's weakly institutionalized party system Joseph Wong; 12. Thailand's feckless parties and party system: a path-dependent analysis Erik Martinez Kuhonta; 13. Party and party system institutionalization in the Philippines Allen Hicken; 14. Party system institutionalization: reflections based on the Asian cases Scott Mainwaring.