Politics in Pacific Asia
The study of Asian politics, like many other fields of Asian studies, has been dominated by works of popular topics on what Asian politics should be. Mainstream political scientists are barely interested in providing a systemic knowledge of what Asian politics is and how governments and politics function in Asian societies. This book is an attempt to deal with the poverty of knowledge on Asian politics. Unlike works in the past on Asian politics, which tended to be overwhelmingly on political history and how Asian societies have struggled to become politically modern, this book introduces Asian politics at its very basic but fundamental level: what types of government are there? How are governments organized? What functions do they perform? How do they relate to other sectors society? How is the polity structured, and who are the primary movers and shapers? How are political parties organized, and what role do they play in politics and government? How are presidents, prime ministers, and legislators elected in Pacific Asian countries? What are the methods for political change? How do citizens participate in political and policy process? What is the type of international environment in which Asian politics operates? What are some of the features of politics and governance in Asia that different from those in other parts of the world? What are the strengths and problem of political systems in Asian countries? Thematically structured around the key institutions and issues, it is genuinely comparative in its approach to the whole region. A range of representative countries (China, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam and the Philippines) are used as key case examples throughout. In developing an analytical framework to form a coherent understanding of government and politics in Asian countries, the book is also compatible with mainstream political science on how national politics can be explained and analysed, and thus serves as an example of how regional studies can be more effectively integrated into and perhaps enrich mainstream social sciences.
