Short description:

Contributing to the growing discourse on political parties in Asia, this book looks at parties in Southeast Asia?s most competitive electoral democracies of Indonesia, Thailand and the Philippines. It highlights the diverse dynamics of party politics in the region and provides new insights into organizational structures, mobilizational strategies and the multiple dimensions of linkages between political parties and their voters.

Long description:

Contributing to the growing discourse on political parties in Asia, this book looks at parties in Southeast Asia?s most competitive electoral democracies of Indonesia, Thailand and the Philippines. It highlights the diverse dynamics of party politics in the region and provides new insights into organizational structures, mobilizational strategies and the multiple dimensions of linkages between political parties and their voters.

The book focuses on the prominence of clientelistic practices and strategies, both within parties as well as between parties and their voters. It demonstrates that clientelism is extremely versatile and can take many forms, ranging from traditional, personalized relationships between a patron and a client to the modern reincarnations of broker-driven network clientelism that is often based on more anonymous relations. The book also discusses how contemporary political parties often combine clientelistic practices with more formal patterns of organization and communication, thus raising questions about neat analytical dichotomies.

Straddling the intersection between political science and area studies, this book is of interest to students and scholars of contemporary Southeast Asian politics, and political scientists and Asian Studies specialists with a broader research interest in comparative democratization studies.

"Party Politics in Southeast Asia is another important contribution to the emerging literature on electoral competition across Southeast Asia, and its treat-ment of Indonesia provides useful conceptual insights and empirical data with which to make sense of recent developments in party politics." - Thomas B. Pepinsky Cornell University, Bulletin of Indonesian Economic Studies

Table of Contents:

1. Introduction: Party Politics and Clientelism in Southeast Asia  2. What Type of Party? Southeast Asian Parties between Clientelism and Electoralism 3. Lipset and Rokkan in Southeast Asia: Indonesia in Comparative Perspective 4. Class, Charisma, and Clientelism in Thai and Philippine Populist Parties 5. Anti-Party Attitudes in Southeast Asia  6. Electoral System Choice and Parties in New Democracies: Lessons from the Philippines and Indonesia 7. Bringing Clientelism and Institutions Back In: The Rise and Fall of Religious Parties in Indonesia?s Electoral Democracy 8. Who?s the Perfect Politician? Clientelism as a determining feature of Thai politics 9. Building Local Party Organizations in Thailand: Strengthening Party Rootedness or Serving Elite Interests?  10. Clientelism and Party Politics in the Philippines