Asian Journal of Comparative Politics

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

ISBN:: 2057-8911

Issue Number

No. 9-2, June 2024

Latest documents

Mapping the research trends on political communication in Asia: A bibliometric analysis using R package and VOS
Political communication refers to developing and exchanging political ideas and opinions among the general public, elected officials, political parties and affiliated organisations like the media. Recent years have seen an enormous amount of literature in the area of political communication owing to the growing interest of academics in the subject. Using the R package bibliometrix and the Visualisation of Similarities viewer programme, this study aims to enhance graphical mapping of the bibliographic data for political communication publications in select countries of Asia. The results show that, especially since 2016, scholars have been paying more and more attention to the study of political communication in the age of fake news, hyperpolarization, etc. They also show that research publications on the topics of communication, China, Taiwan, India, the USA, social media, articles, politics, the internet, decision-making, democracy, governance and elections are gaining momentum in recent years. Additionally, the findings show that the top three nations for publishing articles on political communication are the USA, China and Russia. The findings also reveal that even scholars from non-democratic or less democratic countries have made substantial attempts to improve political communication studies, despite the fact that political communication is one of the most crucial components in democratic countries.
Form of government, electoral system, and party system fragmentation: A global comparison
This study aims to determine the characteristics of party systems within the context of electoral systems, forms of government, and continents. There is no study in the literature that quantitatively reveals the relationship between the party system and forms of government. Furthermore, this study differs from other studies in that it deals with the relationship between the electoral system and the party system on a global scale. In the study, the effective number of parties (ENEP and ENPP) was calculated for the last three legislative elections of the countries governed by presidential, president–parliamentary, premier–presidential and parliamentary forms of government, using the Laakso–Taagepera Index. The dataset was then analyzed with ANOVA and post-hoc tests. The study revealed that party systems do not differ significantly from forms of government, that is, forms of government do not determine party systems. Similarly, party systems do not significantly differ in terms of the continents, that is, there are no continental party system characteristics of the forms of government. Also, the study confirmed that it is the electoral system that determines the party systems.
How was the Taliban 2.0 in Afghanistan seen in Pakistan?
Electoral districts’ distribution in Jordan: Political geographical analysis
This study attempts to reveal the impact of distribution inequality of electoral districts on the election outcomes in Jordan. Since 1993 elections, electoral laws and regulations have been adopted that underestimate population density in Jordan, meaning that some regions with lower population densities have obtained more parliamentary seats than regions with high population density, including the governorates of Amman, Irbid and Zarqa. Successive Jordanian governments’ strategies have intentionally ignored electoral geography, which reduces the chances of mainly the Palestinian component obtaining significant numbers of seats in the Parliament. Governments have also sought to mitigate the chances of Islamic, Leftist and Nationalist parties obtaining a majority of seats in the Parliament, and thus being able to exert effective pressure to hold the executive authority accountable and responsible for its actions. In addition, low levels of confidence of most Jordanian citizens in Parliament have resulted in a lack of true desire to vote, which has led to an increase in the percentage of wasted votes compared with the cast votes. The study concludes that the executive authority's domination in drawing and dividing electoral districts as part of its hegemony and control over the general policy of elections has purposefully neglected population density and geographical criteria. In light of the study results, an urgent need arises to endorse an election law that accomplishes the standards of distributive justice, maximizes the role of supportive and opposition parties, raises citizen confidence in Parliaments, reduces the percentage of wasted votes and finally activates a truly representative Parliament.
The digital rise and its economic implications for China through the Digital Silk Road under the Belt and Road Initiative
Bangladesh's ready-made garments sector rebound: Revisiting gendered labor precarity and dependency
Thousands of ready-made garment (RMG) workers, frequently seen as Bangladesh's lifeline for economic growth and poverty alleviation, were sacked arbitrarily just weeks after the Covid-19 pandemic outbreak. The widespread cancellation of existing orders, followed by factory closures and worker layoffs, triggered an unprecedented crisis for RMG workers, the vast majority of whom are women. As the industry is slowly recovering from the initial upheaval and on its way to rebound, this article revisits the impacts of the pandemic on the RMG workers in Bangladesh, who predominantly hails from impoverished rural regions of the country. Using first-hand data and secondary literature, this article offers a compelling account of the pandemic outbreak's disproportionate impact on female RMG workers. As we examine the effects on workers, we also look back at the structural hierarchies and power asymmetries embedded in this sector—a quintessential feature of the contemporary global economy. The article offers three distinct contributions to the emerging literature on the Covid-19 pandemic and its impacts on the changing labor spectrum in the global South. First, it explores the pandemic's broader gendered implications, revealing how it unevenly affected women. Second, it underlines how the pre-existing power dynamic within the global supply chain further exacerbated inequality, marginalization, and workers' precarity in Bangladesh's RMG industry. Lastly, it underscores the unequal interdependence between "core" and "peripheral" countries in the global production and labor landscape, highlighting the asymmetrical nature of their relationship.
A literature review on political uncertainty and stock market behaviour
The political event-related literature has been growing over the past decades, generating a continuous stream of research and journal publications. This article aims to systematically review the impact of the political events on stock market literature to outline its current state, trends, gaps, and discrepancies. To this end, 111 political events-related articles published in 68 finance, economic and political journals were extracted. The retrieved pieces of literature were thoroughly examined using a comprehensive classification framework that emphasized broadly conceptual, theoretical, and methodological aspects. Finally, building on this literature, the paper proposes an extensive research agenda to help move the political event literature forward.
Right wing cultural hegemony and the decline of socialism in Pakistan: A case study of Punjab – 1977–1997
Soon after its independence from the British in August 1947, Pakistan's socio-political culture became entangled into a monopoly of the right-wing with feudal lords, especially in the Punjab province. The pseudo right-wing political parties exploited Pakistan’s religious foundations and established a cultural hegemony. Historically, Punjab had remained the epicentre of political bargains since its inception; therefore, it retained strong alliances for stable government in the centre. Somehow, dissident voices and views from any other political ideology were deemed to be anti-state or anti-religious. This paper analyses through Antonio Gramsci's Theory of Cultural Hegemony how the right wing manipulated the opinion of the masses to legitimize their rule, which ultimately led to the decline of socialism. This paper illustrates the underlying ultra-religious campaigns in the electoral manoeuvring of the right wing from 1977 to 1997, thereby gaining the consent of the people. This study also outlines the systematic othering and demonizing of the left wing in society by pseudo right-wing factions.
Who can you blame? Trust in institutions and mobilization across regimes in Asia
In this article, we consider the attitudinal motivations for political participation in countries across Asia. Specifically, we assess how trust in different types of institutional actors provides incentives for extra-legal actions, such as protest and the use of force, by analyzing the behaviors of individuals based upon their evaluations of representational and implementing institutions. As part of this analysis, we consider attitudes and action in both democracies and non-democracies, arguing for separate mechanisms to motivate unconventional political participation. Using Asian Barometer Survey data, we find that individuals living under democratic regimes are motivated to engage in more costly forms of participation in response to their assessments of trust in elected officials, while those individuals residing in non-democracies engage in these high-risk activities when they are dissatisfied with the performance of the police, civil service, and courts.
Democratic backsliding in the Philippines: Are voters becoming illiberal?
Democratic backsliding by incumbents is one of the most prevalent forms of backsliding in recent global trends of democratic erosion. Understanding the attitude of voters toward backsliding incumbents is crucial because popular support is the basis of legitimacy for these incumbents. This article studies voter attitudes in the Philippines, where democracy was subverted by the incumbent president, Rodrigo Duterte, who served from 2016 to 2022. Specifically, we examine the validity of the claim that Filipino voters are acquiring a “taste for illiberal rule” made by some scholars. First, we analyzed the survey data regarding the support for various types of political systems, where part of the data comes from our originally commissioned survey at the Social Weather Stations. Second, we explored Pulse Asia's longitudinal survey data on martial-rule support. Our investigation of these survey data did not find substantive support for the “taste for illiberal rule” proposition. Further, we argue that Filipino voters are contingent supporters of illiberal politics while supporting the procedural principles of democracy at the baseline.