Containing the latest research and insights of academics and development practitioners pursuing political and economic reforms in the ASEAN region, Building Inclusive Democracies in ASEAN recognizes that a well-functioning democracy is part of what ultimately fosters inclusive growth and development. Inequitable access to democratic processes and mechanisms produce government policies and initiatives that are inconsistent with the needs of the majority.The chapters include empirical research on the symptoms and effects of traditional patron-client politics, experiences, insights, analyses, and policy recommendations, as well as reflections, on reform efforts along the lines of citizens' participation, transparency, and evidence-based policymaking.

"An examination of how dictators and democrats in Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand built and sustained pro-growth political coalitions"--

Participation and representation are two fundamental elements and principles of democracy: they affirm that a democracy is dependent on its citizens and that this ownership is expressed through meaningful participation by and representation of all citizens in democratic institutions and processes. Underpinning all this is the idea that every citizen—regardless of class, age, gender, sexual orientation, ability, group, culture, and ethnic or religious background—should have an equal right and opportunity to engage with and contribute to the functioning of these institutions and processes. This publication documents and highlights the experiences and innovation of regional organizations in promoting inclusive political participation and representation. Focused on civil society engagement, gender mainstreaming, and regional parliaments, this publication not only provides food for thought for policymakers and practitioners but also facilitates understanding of the contexts in which regional organizations operate.

Traditionally, stability in Asia has relied on America's bilateral alliances with Japan, Australia, and the Republic of Korea. Yet in recent years, emergent and more active multilateral forums& mdash;such as the Six-Party Talks on North Korea and the East Asia Summit& mdash;have taken precedence, engendering both cooperation and competition while reflecting the local concerns of the region. Some are concerned that this process is moving toward less-inclusive, bloc-based "talking shops" and that the future direction and success of these arrangements, along with their implications for global and regional security and prosperity, remain unclear. The fifteen contributors to this volume, all leading scholars in the field, provide national perspectives on regional institutional architecture and their functional challenges. They illuminate areas of cooperation that will move the region toward substantive collaboration, convergence of norms, and strengthened domestic institutions. They also highlight the degree to which institution building in Asia& mdash;a region composed of liberal democracies, authoritarian regimes, and anachronistic dictatorships& mdash;has become an arena for competition among major powers and conflicting norms, and assess the future shape of Asian security architecture., reviewing a previous edition or volume

The Routledge Handbook of Race and Ethnicity in Asia introduces theoretical approaches to the study of race, ethnicity and indigeneity in Asia beyond those commonly grounded in the Western experience. The volume’s twenty-eight chapters consider not only the relationship between ethnic or racial minorities and the state, but social relations within and between individual and transnational communities. These shape not only the contours of governance, but also the means by which knowledge of national identity, ‘self ’, and ‘other’ have been constructed and reconstructed over time. Divided into four sections, it provides holistic and comparative coverage of South, South East, and East Asia, as well as Australasia and Oceania; an area that extends from Pakistan in the West to Hawai’i in the East. Contributors to this handbook offer a variety of disciplinary and interdisciplinary perspectives, opening a domain of scholarship wherein the relationship between phenotype and racism is less pronounced than European and North American approaches, which have often privileged the so-called ‘colour stigmata’, leading to further exclusions of particular ethnic, racial, and indigenous communities. This volume seeks to overcome racism and white ideologies embedded in theories of race and ethnicity in Asia, proving a valuable resource to both students and scholars of comparative racial and ethnic studies, international relations and human rights.

“This collection of essays provides a wealth of information and analysis about the Philippine economy and the role of agriculture and economic policy in it. The Philippine experience has been quite different from the highly successful Asian economies, with a long period of low growth until the turn of the century and only then greater success. The authors cover not only the Philippine experience but also place it in its Asian context and that of developing countries more generally. They report on the lessons learned, both positive and negative, from the various economic policies that have been adopted, with regard to both agriculture and to economic inequality. Those interested in Philippine economic development, and Asian development more broadly, will find this an important reference work.”—Anne O. Krueger, Senior Research Professor, Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies; 1st Deputy Managing Director, IMF (2001-6); Vice-President of Economics and Research, World Bank (1982-86)

Democracy is in decline and the share of world's population living in freedom under democratic government has decreased considerably as authoritarian practices proliferate. Surprisingly, most of the analyses that study these developments give little attention to the role of political parties in the decline of democracy although there is a broad consensus about the relevance of political parties for the functioning of democracy. How parties can contribute to democracy is best understood by looking at a very diverse range of cases in different parts of the world. Instead of taking a regional approach which dominates the literature on political parties, this volume takes a global perspective. It brings together experts from four continents, which opens up fresh comparative perspectives on the role of political parties in the democratic process. Political Parties and the Crisis of Democracy asks how parties contribute to the consolidation of democracy, why they fail today, why new parties emerge and displace old parties, and also what parties need to do in order to survive cutthroat competition, above all with a new (and sometimes not so new) variants of populist parties. It takes a unique global focus, covering old and new democracies in different regions of the world. It covers Western and Central Europe, Asia-Pacific, Latin America and Africa, Turkey and Israel, including presidential, semi-presidential, and parliamentary democracies and also some countries where democracy is seriously threatened or eroding. This volume offers unique comparative perspectives combined with a detailed analysis of individual countries and their party systems. It shows that parties are central actors for the consolidation of democracy, but that organisational reforms are necessary to cope with social change such as individualisation, the decline in party membership and the impact of new media and modern communication, thus counteracting the fragmentation of party systems and the decay of democracy. This is an open access title available under the terms of a [CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 International] licence. It is free to read at Oxford Scholarship Online and offered as a free PDF download from OUP and selected open access locations.

In this volume, a leading group of scholars pose the question, has the Philippine economy rejoined the dynamic East Asian mainstream and, if so, what set of policies and priorities are required to maintain the strong economic momentum of recent years? Successive chapters address issues related to growth and poverty, infrastructure and urbanization, education, health, the environment, energy, development finance, and governance and institutions. The book has been written with a broad audience in mind. First and foremost it is for readers in, and interested in, this fascinating and important country with a population that now exceeds a hundred million. Second, it will appeal to those in the broader development community with an interest in the analytical and policy challenges that democratic, middle-income countries face as they struggle to lift their citizens out of poverty and to achieve broad-based and environmentally sustainable growth.

This book examines five countries in South East Asia that are instructive case studies of how the region has had to negotiate pathways of development beyond crises and traps. At two ends of just one decade, 1997–2007, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam all had to weather the shocks of an East Asian financial crisis and a global financial crisis. Some economies might have buckled completely under those shocks and been condemned to long-term stagnation. Yet these five economies, part of the larger Asian region, emerged with continued if slower economic growth. An important theme of this book is that their resilience has been partly derived from the pursuit of growth and competitiveness along less known or recommended pathways. The chapters of this book take a novel approach to South East Asia’s search for growth and improvement. They do not begin by evaluating how far macro-level performances would take a particular country towards high-income status. Instead they provide original insights into actual cases of intermediate ways of achieving growth, upgrading and income improvement in non-privileged sectors. Such cases may hold more relevant lessons for the majority of developing countries than the experiences of highly developed economies.