Asian Journal of Comparative Politics

Publisher:: Sage Publications, Inc.
Publication date:: 2021-10-06

ISBN:: 2057-8911

Issue Number

No. 9-4, December 2024

Latest documents

Cross-cutting exposures on social network sites. The moderating role of national environments
This study explores how social network sites (SNSs) expose users to cross-cutting views. Relying on cross-national data collected among French and Japanese users of Facebook and Twitter, the design of this study allows assessment of the extent to which active and passive social media use fosters cross-cutting exposure in different national contexts. The results show that SNS use is differently related to cross-cutting exposures depending on forms of usage: while active SNS use is associated with a decrease in cross-cutting exposures, passive use leads to more exposure to dissonant views. This study also acknowledges significant variations across national subsamples, questioning the generalizability of results obtained from single case studies.
Celebrity culture, level of education and trust in media institutions: Empirical evidence from the Philippines
This study aims to provide empirical evidence on the celebrity culture, i.e. the pervasive fascination of an audience with public figures, in the Philippines. We used data from the seventh wave of the World Values Survey (n = 1200) to establish whether celebrity culture exists in the Philippines. We then tested whether citizens’ level of education affects one's attribution of confidence to an institution dominated by celebrities, i.e. television, over those institutions governed by experts, i.e. universities. Lastly, we performed a sentiment analysis in the comments of a YouTube video from a well-known celebrity, Toni Gonzaga, on her interview with Bongbong Marcos, the son of the late dictator, to investigate how strong celebrity influence is in the country traversing the social and political arena. The results showed that there is a significant difference between citizens’ level of confidence in television and universities, and that those with lower levels of education are more likely to be confident in the television as an institution. The public sentiment of citizens on the infamous video was overwhelmingly positive. While the results underlined the strong celebrity influence in the country, our paper not only reinforces the need for a greater role of education in fostering democratic citizenry but also bears significant implications for the mediatization of politics in developing democracies.
Electoral competition, district party fragmentation and environmental policy outcome: Empirical evidence from Indonesia
This paper explores how party fragmentation and electoral competition relate to the outcome of environmental policy. It is assumed that when elections happen the electoral punishment and incentives will be distributed. Specifically, when there are high number of effective number parties (ENP) in the legislature, it brings competition to the incumbent to provide more public goods. Hence, the electoral competition and party fragmentation will bring more provision of public goods. Using these assumptions, the electoral competition theory provides basic pieces of information to predict the effect of electoral competition on environmental policy outcome; a high ENP will provide a better outcome of environmental policy. Taking Indonesia as our case selection, we discovered a positive association between the number of effective parties and energy efficiency, such as LED, and a negative correlation between the usage of wood for domestic fuel. This means that political competition such as electoral competition promotes better outcome for environmental policy.
Labor market dualization or cultural divide?: A comparative analysis of the declining support for center-left parties in Western Europe and Japan
Center-left parties in Western Europe and Japan have experienced a persistent decline in voter turnout. This study examines the factors contributing to this weakening support. Using data from the 2016 European Social Survey across 13 countries and the 2017–2018 Japanese General Social Surveys, we tested three hypotheses: labor market dualization between insiders and outsiders; divergence in policy preferences between social investment and social compensation; and a cultural divide between liberalism and authoritarianism. Our findings provide little support for the labor market dualization and policy preference divergence hypotheses in both Western Europe and Japan. The third hypothesis, concerning a cultural divide in attitudes toward immigration, is supported only in Western Europe. Conversely, Japan is an anomaly because of the absence of a substantial left-liberal constituency. The scarcity of liberal values among Japan's sociocultural professionals suggests that center-left parties have underdeveloped core constituencies.
Political settlements and expatriate dual citizenship in Australia and Indonesia
Many countries have extended rights of dual citizenship to their expatriates but, as Faist has noted, the road towards increasing tolerance of expatriate dual citizenship (EDC) has been ‘bumpy’. This study seeks to illuminate the reasons for this bumpiness by examining the political dynamics surrounding EDC in Australia and Indonesia, two countries that have pursued distinct approaches to the issue. In both cases, we find that their approaches have reflected the nature of their political settlements and, in the Australian case, that this effect was mediated by political elite strategizing. We accordingly call on researchers to give greater attention to how political settlements and politicians’ agency shape EDC adoption in future analysis.
Southeast Asian leaders’ political orientation towards the environmental policy outcome
In this paper, we present an analysis of the leaders’ backgrounds shaping their decisions towards environmental policy outcomes of nascent democracies such as countries in Southeast Asia, with a specific focus on leaders’ traits and socio-economic conditions. Drawing on factors that influence a leader's decision-making process, including external factors such as social and economic and internal factors (cognitive or traits), this study explores the variation of quality of environmental policy outcomes in Southeast Asian countries. Our findings suggest that the level of development negatively affects environmental policy outcomes, while democratic conditions do not play a significant role. We also find that leaders’ age and level of education negatively affect environmental policy outcomes, whereas gender is not correlated with the quality of the environment. This research provides valuable insights into the environmental policy landscape of Southeast Asia and offers recommendations for policymakers seeking to enhance environmental policy outcomes in the region.
Determinants of populist voting in Pakistan: An analysis of PTI first-win constituencies in the 2018 general elections
Populist voting behavior is a relatively new research area with most studies concentrated on European and American voters, despite electoral successes of populist parties in illiberal and hybrid democracies of Asia. The research fills this gap by outlining the determinants of populist voting in Pakistan through constituency-based analysis of electoral data of the 2018 general elections when a Pakistani populist party, Pakistan Tahreek-e-Insaaf, won the elections. The research compares the ideational framework with the strategic framework of populism, examining whether voting for a populist party is determined by the political ideology or attitude of the voters or the mobilization strategy of the party built upon the sociopolitical realities of the region. The focus is on constituencies where PTI was successful for the first time. Based on the analysis of eight such constituencies, both rural and urban, the study concludes that neither the PTI voters’ profile matches the sociodemographic profile of the populist voter mentioned in literature nor their voting decisions seem to be guided by anti-elitist attitude common among European or Latin American populist voters. The research outlines two major factors that can explain the victory of PTI: the politics of electables and the mobilization of non-voters, indicating that the strategic lens of populism better explains voting for PTI.
A quantum model of climate change? Insights from community-based natural resource management in Namibia
Quantum approaches to International Relations (IR) offer theoretically rich explanatory frameworks attuned to the complexity and uncertainty of the social world. Recognizing that the payoff of quantum approaches to IR may be clarified through their application to empirical cases, we approach the radically complex and uncertain case of climate change's impacts on Community-Based Natural Resource Management (CBNRM) in Namibia from a quantum perspective. Established to protect the vibrant flora and fauna of Namibia while also promoting community and economic development aims, CBNRM conservancies face complex challenges from climate change. Inspired by Karen O’Brien's call for ‘quantum social change’ in our response to climate change, we draw on the quantum social theory to unpack how desertification, extreme weather patterns, and drought conditions radically reshape the possibilities available to conservancies, communities, farmers, and the state itself. By conceptualizing futures as wavefunctions encompassing the spectrum of potential future states, we demonstrate how a quantum imaginary can help to develop novel explanatory frameworks for the complexity of the world around us.
Party leaders’ tech-awareness matters: Examining the case of Taiwan political party Facebook utilization in the 2016 and 2020 parliamentary elections
Centering on theories of equalization and normalization, resources are seen as an important determinant. This study highlights two theoretical drawbacks related to resources. First, the mental role of party leaders as an invisible resource has been never studied. Second, party size has been massively employed as a proxy for resources in previous studies. To address these lacunae, this study theoretically proposes tech-awareness—operationalized by ages and educational levels of party leaders —to indicate parties’ expertise in using social media in campaigns. Methodologically, this study argues that parties’ annual final accounts can be an alternative to measure their material resources. Facebook utilization by Taiwanese parties (N total = 37) in the 2016 and 2020 national elections is analyzed. This study indicates that tech-awareness positively influences parties’ Facebook use. Nevertheless, parties’ annual final accounts reveal curvilinear relationships with parties’ Facebook use.
‘Papa, I am gay, please, love me’: Politics of censorship and queer representation in Bollywood
The article explores the problematic issues that arise between Bollywood films projecting homosexual relationships and the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) filtering their contents. Queer popular cultural representations in India face challenges to get release certification because of their inherently debatable contents including ‘non-normative’ sexual relationships which are largely identified as a potential threat to the existing heteronormative, majoritarian culture. By giving reference to two queer films, Unfreedom and Angry Indian Goddesses, this article explores the politics of censorship in the light of Foucauldian power relations and the discourse of knowledge production. I argue that by proscribing representations of queer sexualities in films, the CBFC has acted on behalf of the state in decelerating the formation and proliferation of a counter cultural movement to balance homophobia discursively and to peddle majoritarian power politics, and thus the notion of heterosexuality as compulsory form of sexual behaviour is popularized and consolidated in Indian society.