Presidentialism and Democracy in East and Southeast Asia (Routledge/City University of Hong Kong Southeast Asia Series)

__Presidentialism and Democracy in East and Southeast Asia__ examines the impact of presidential systems on democracies by examining three distinct literatures – the perilousness of competing legitimacies of the executive and legislative branches, issues of institutional design (particularly regarding semi-presidentialism), and the rise of executive aggrandizement. Despite often intense political conflict and temporary instability in the East and Southeast Asia, presidential systems of various types – from relatively "pure" forms to semi-presidentialism and other hybrids – have largely been resilient. Although there are signs of growing autocratization in several cases, presidentialism, associated with both accommodation and conflict, has usually not driven it. This book’s contributions to presidentialism debates will be of interests to students and scholars of comparative politics while it also offers detailed analysis of the presidency in these East and Southeast Asian cases. This book examines the impact of presidential systems on democracies by examining three distinct literatures – the perilousness of competing legitimacies of the executive and legislative branches, issues of institutional design (particularly regarding semi-presidentialism) and the rise of executive aggrandizement. Cover 1 Half Title 2 Series Page 3 Title Page 4 Copyright Page 5 Table of Contents 6 List of tables 8 Preface and acknowledgements 10 List of contributors 12 1 Presidentialism and democracy in East and Southeast Asia: Between resilience and regression 14 2 South Korea: Presidentialism in historical and sociological perspective 33 3 The Philippines: Imperiled and imperious presidents (but not perilous presidentialism) 53 4 Indonesia: Presidential politics and democratic regression 76 5 Indonesia: Tales of presidentialization 99 6 Taiwan: The limited but beneficial role of semi-presidentialism 118 7 Timor-Leste: Semi-presidentialism and the tribulations of a new democracy 141 8 Myanmar: Hybrid presidentialism and democratic breakdown 161 Index 182 Presidentialism;,Democracy;,Resilience;,Democratic,Regression;,Sociological,Perspective;,Semi-presidentialism;,Hybrid,Presidentialism Presidentialism,Democracy,Resilience,Democratic Regression,Sociological Perspective,Semi-presidentialism,Hybrid Presidentialism "Presidentialism and Democracy in East and Southeast Asia examines the impact of presidential systems on democracies by examining three distinct literatures - the perilousness of competing legitimacies of the executive and legislative branches, issues of institutional design (particularly regarding semi-presidentialism), and the rise of executive aggrandizement. Despite often intense political conflict and temporary instability in the East and Southeast Asia, presidential systems of various types - from relatively "pure" forms to semi-presidentialism and other hybrids - have largely been resilient. Although there are signs of growing autocratization in several cases, presidentialism, associated with both accommodation and conflict, has usually not driven it. This book's contributions to presidentialism debates will be of interests to students and scholars of comparative politics while it also offers detailed analysis of the presidency in these East and Southeast Asian cases"-- Provided by publisher