Pub Date : 2024-01-11DOI: 10.1177/20578911231223771
Yuko Kasuya, Netina Tan
This introduction to the special issue highlights the key findings and implications of democratic backsliding in Southeast Asia. It begins with an overview of the region's democratic landscape using the Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem) dataset and compares the patterns and modes of backsliding in six selected cases. Collectively, the articles suggest the importance of unpacking regime components and the growing attitudinal elite-mass gap in analyzing the quality of democracy. The liberalization effects of social media were found to be mixed. The theoretical and empirical findings offer a fertile ground for future comparative work beyond the region.
{"title":"Introduction: Democratic backsliding in Southeast Asia","authors":"Yuko Kasuya, Netina Tan","doi":"10.1177/20578911231223771","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/20578911231223771","url":null,"abstract":"This introduction to the special issue highlights the key findings and implications of democratic backsliding in Southeast Asia. It begins with an overview of the region's democratic landscape using the Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem) dataset and compares the patterns and modes of backsliding in six selected cases. Collectively, the articles suggest the importance of unpacking regime components and the growing attitudinal elite-mass gap in analyzing the quality of democracy. The liberalization effects of social media were found to be mixed. The theoretical and empirical findings offer a fertile ground for future comparative work beyond the region.","PeriodicalId":43694,"journal":{"name":"Asian Journal of Comparative Politics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2024-01-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139626375","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-12-27DOI: 10.1177/20578911231208915
Risa J. Toha, Cheryl N Cosslett
Conventional wisdom maintains that a robust educated middle class is an important factor for a healthy democracy. Recent empirical evidence, however, has shown that there is a significant variation in middle class support for democracy. How do educated elites respond to declines in democracy? To date, we know relatively little about how the educated elites view, talk, and respond as democracy erodes in their country. We address this gap by conducting a discourse analysis of government and educated elites texts in Indonesia from 2010 through 2020. We find that government and educated elites’ discourses on democracy as democracy backslides tend to diverge significantly: While official texts boast of the Indonesia's identity as a Muslim-majority democracy, materials produced by the country's educated middle class express increasing disenchantment with weak political parties, restrictions on freedom of speech, repressive measures toward government critics, and limited checks on executive overreach. Our results suggest that as democracy erodes, government officials’ narratives continue to present the country as a robust democracy, and as such, official narratives alone would not reveal the cracks in democracy in the early stages of decline. Instead, traces of decline are more visible in everyday discourses, where informed citizens express their concerns and criticisms with less fear of reprisals. Rather than standing with the ruling elites, the educated elite authors and producers in our data respond to democratic erosion by resisting and criticizing illiberal measures and demanding greater protection of rights. Our work highlights the importance of an engaged educated middle class who can perceive the subtle erosion in democratic practices and challenge it, both in Indonesia and beyond.
{"title":"Narratives of democracy: Educated elites’ responses to democratic erosion in Indonesia","authors":"Risa J. Toha, Cheryl N Cosslett","doi":"10.1177/20578911231208915","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/20578911231208915","url":null,"abstract":"Conventional wisdom maintains that a robust educated middle class is an important factor for a healthy democracy. Recent empirical evidence, however, has shown that there is a significant variation in middle class support for democracy. How do educated elites respond to declines in democracy? To date, we know relatively little about how the educated elites view, talk, and respond as democracy erodes in their country. We address this gap by conducting a discourse analysis of government and educated elites texts in Indonesia from 2010 through 2020. We find that government and educated elites’ discourses on democracy as democracy backslides tend to diverge significantly: While official texts boast of the Indonesia's identity as a Muslim-majority democracy, materials produced by the country's educated middle class express increasing disenchantment with weak political parties, restrictions on freedom of speech, repressive measures toward government critics, and limited checks on executive overreach. Our results suggest that as democracy erodes, government officials’ narratives continue to present the country as a robust democracy, and as such, official narratives alone would not reveal the cracks in democracy in the early stages of decline. Instead, traces of decline are more visible in everyday discourses, where informed citizens express their concerns and criticisms with less fear of reprisals. Rather than standing with the ruling elites, the educated elite authors and producers in our data respond to democratic erosion by resisting and criticizing illiberal measures and demanding greater protection of rights. Our work highlights the importance of an engaged educated middle class who can perceive the subtle erosion in democratic practices and challenge it, both in Indonesia and beyond.","PeriodicalId":43694,"journal":{"name":"Asian Journal of Comparative Politics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2023-12-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139154423","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-11-19DOI: 10.1177/20578911231213421
Takuji Tanaka
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.
{"title":"Labor market dualization or cultural divide?: A comparative analysis of the declining support for center-left parties in Western Europe and Japan","authors":"Takuji Tanaka","doi":"10.1177/20578911231213421","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/20578911231213421","url":null,"abstract":"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.","PeriodicalId":43694,"journal":{"name":"Asian Journal of Comparative Politics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2023-11-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139259869","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-11-01DOI: 10.1177/20578911231207678
Rohaiba B Radiamoda, Hsueh-hua Chuang, Ronald A Pernia
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.
{"title":"Celebrity culture, level of education and trust in media institutions: Empirical evidence from the Philippines","authors":"Rohaiba B Radiamoda, Hsueh-hua Chuang, Ronald A Pernia","doi":"10.1177/20578911231207678","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/20578911231207678","url":null,"abstract":"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.","PeriodicalId":43694,"journal":{"name":"Asian Journal of Comparative Politics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135371371","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-10-31DOI: 10.1177/20578911231207711
Tasmiha Tabassum Sadia
The study investigates the factors behind growing communal violence in Bangladesh that is mostly perpetrated against non-Muslim communities by examining three different cases. The qualitative study has been undertaken with the help of available secondary resources and in-depth interviews of experts as primary sources. The findings confirm that the ongoing communal violence in Bangladesh is not spontaneous but rather comprises deliberate and well-orchestrated incidents. It has been noted that apart from communal identity or ideological discord, other factors have played a pivotal role in these constant attacks. All these attacks are primarily intertwined with local politics and power relations as there is evidence of local political leaders’ and members’ involvement in the assaults. Besides, the entrenchment of extremist elements and growing intolerance at the mass level have a formidable impact on the gradual alienation of non-Muslim communities. The inaction of the state agencies and a culture of impunity have been largely responsible for the deterioration of communal harmony in Bangladesh. Due to these factors, no organised cultural campaign or resistant mechanism could gain a strong foothold against communal violence.
{"title":"Communal violence in Bangladesh: A study of the underlying factors behind the persistent attacks on the non-Muslim communities","authors":"Tasmiha Tabassum Sadia","doi":"10.1177/20578911231207711","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/20578911231207711","url":null,"abstract":"The study investigates the factors behind growing communal violence in Bangladesh that is mostly perpetrated against non-Muslim communities by examining three different cases. The qualitative study has been undertaken with the help of available secondary resources and in-depth interviews of experts as primary sources. The findings confirm that the ongoing communal violence in Bangladesh is not spontaneous but rather comprises deliberate and well-orchestrated incidents. It has been noted that apart from communal identity or ideological discord, other factors have played a pivotal role in these constant attacks. All these attacks are primarily intertwined with local politics and power relations as there is evidence of local political leaders’ and members’ involvement in the assaults. Besides, the entrenchment of extremist elements and growing intolerance at the mass level have a formidable impact on the gradual alienation of non-Muslim communities. The inaction of the state agencies and a culture of impunity have been largely responsible for the deterioration of communal harmony in Bangladesh. Due to these factors, no organised cultural campaign or resistant mechanism could gain a strong foothold against communal violence.","PeriodicalId":43694,"journal":{"name":"Asian Journal of Comparative Politics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-10-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135927866","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-10-11DOI: 10.1177/20578911231206405
Julien Audemard
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.
{"title":"Cross-cutting exposures on social network sites. The moderating role of national environments","authors":"Julien Audemard","doi":"10.1177/20578911231206405","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/20578911231206405","url":null,"abstract":"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.","PeriodicalId":43694,"journal":{"name":"Asian Journal of Comparative Politics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-10-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"136213440","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-10-03DOI: 10.1177/20578911231203291
Jiun-Chi Lin, Da-chi Liao, Mateusz Cytarzyński
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.
{"title":"Party leaders’ tech-awareness matters: Examining the case of Taiwan political party Facebook utilization in the 2016 and 2020 parliamentary elections","authors":"Jiun-Chi Lin, Da-chi Liao, Mateusz Cytarzyński","doi":"10.1177/20578911231203291","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/20578911231203291","url":null,"abstract":"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.","PeriodicalId":43694,"journal":{"name":"Asian Journal of Comparative Politics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-10-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135738779","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-09-11DOI: 10.1177/20578911231199162
Yunsoo Lee, Zongfeng Sun
There are few questions about the fact that China has achieved substantial strides in economic development over the last four decades. Nonetheless, many have cast doubts on its path of increasing transparency. Previous analyses on Chinese transparency have shed light on this issue in isolation. For this reason, we attempt to offer an integrated account of Chinese government transparency. Moreover, transparency involves various dimensions and types. For a complete understanding of transparency, therefore, considering diverse measures is critical. This article aims to provide a condensed overview of government transparency in China by considering various measures of transparency. To a certain extent, China has been successful in bringing greater transparency. Still, in many accounts, it cannot be said that the Chinese government has achieved sufficient progress in promoting transparency.
{"title":"Managed transparency: Chinese government transparency","authors":"Yunsoo Lee, Zongfeng Sun","doi":"10.1177/20578911231199162","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/20578911231199162","url":null,"abstract":"There are few questions about the fact that China has achieved substantial strides in economic development over the last four decades. Nonetheless, many have cast doubts on its path of increasing transparency. Previous analyses on Chinese transparency have shed light on this issue in isolation. For this reason, we attempt to offer an integrated account of Chinese government transparency. Moreover, transparency involves various dimensions and types. For a complete understanding of transparency, therefore, considering diverse measures is critical. This article aims to provide a condensed overview of government transparency in China by considering various measures of transparency. To a certain extent, China has been successful in bringing greater transparency. Still, in many accounts, it cannot be said that the Chinese government has achieved sufficient progress in promoting transparency.","PeriodicalId":43694,"journal":{"name":"Asian Journal of Comparative Politics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-09-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"136023784","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-09-07DOI: 10.1177/20578911231199530
Dian Fitri Sabrina, Brett Inder
Since 2004, Indonesia has held 5-yearly national elections for the positions of president and vice president. This has been a promising step forward in a maturing democracy. However, a restriction was imposed that nomination of presidential candidates can only be made made by political parties with parliamentary representation above some minimum level—the “minimum threshold”. That threshold is relatively high, meaning that since 2009, there has only ever been two candidates for president in the elections, each backed by coalitions led by the dominant establishment parties. This paper discusses the workings of the minimum threshold and argues that it undermines democratic principles, having the effect of preserving and strengthening the power of the strongest political parties at the expense of new or emerging voices. We also propose an alternative approach that delivers the desired broader democratic voice.
{"title":"Concentration of power in nomination of presidential candidates in Indonesia","authors":"Dian Fitri Sabrina, Brett Inder","doi":"10.1177/20578911231199530","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/20578911231199530","url":null,"abstract":"Since 2004, Indonesia has held 5-yearly national elections for the positions of president and vice president. This has been a promising step forward in a maturing democracy. However, a restriction was imposed that nomination of presidential candidates can only be made made by political parties with parliamentary representation above some minimum level—the “minimum threshold”. That threshold is relatively high, meaning that since 2009, there has only ever been two candidates for president in the elections, each backed by coalitions led by the dominant establishment parties. This paper discusses the workings of the minimum threshold and argues that it undermines democratic principles, having the effect of preserving and strengthening the power of the strongest political parties at the expense of new or emerging voices. We also propose an alternative approach that delivers the desired broader democratic voice.","PeriodicalId":43694,"journal":{"name":"Asian Journal of Comparative Politics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2023-09-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44717014","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-09-01DOI: 10.1177/20578911231195970
Yoes C Kenawas
This essay aims to study why politicians engage in dynastic politics within democratic institutions and how they reject institutional changes that may limit their ability to pass on political power to family members. While scholars have emphasized institutions as an enabling factor, it is unclear how the power struggle manifested to preserve the institutions that continually suit the interests of aspiring dynasts amidst the democracy shift and pressure. This study seeks to fill the gap by delving into how political players struggle to preserve the structures that allow them to form political dynasties. This study also presents an original empirical conclusion demonstrating that Indonesian political dynasties more than tripled between 2010 and 2018, or in only one election cycle. This study contends that the primary cause of the rapid growth of political dynasties in Indonesia is inextricably related to the gradual institutional changes following Indonesia's democratic transition in 1998. In the process, the parasitic symbionts—i.e. the aspiring dynasts—were able to make institutional drifts.
{"title":"The irony of Indonesia's democracy: The rise of dynastic politics in the post-Suharto era","authors":"Yoes C Kenawas","doi":"10.1177/20578911231195970","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/20578911231195970","url":null,"abstract":"This essay aims to study why politicians engage in dynastic politics within democratic institutions and how they reject institutional changes that may limit their ability to pass on political power to family members. While scholars have emphasized institutions as an enabling factor, it is unclear how the power struggle manifested to preserve the institutions that continually suit the interests of aspiring dynasts amidst the democracy shift and pressure. This study seeks to fill the gap by delving into how political players struggle to preserve the structures that allow them to form political dynasties. This study also presents an original empirical conclusion demonstrating that Indonesian political dynasties more than tripled between 2010 and 2018, or in only one election cycle. This study contends that the primary cause of the rapid growth of political dynasties in Indonesia is inextricably related to the gradual institutional changes following Indonesia's democratic transition in 1998. In the process, the parasitic symbionts—i.e. the aspiring dynasts—were able to make institutional drifts.","PeriodicalId":43694,"journal":{"name":"Asian Journal of Comparative Politics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135588301","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}