Jeju Peace Institute

SHIN Jae Hyeok (Assistant Professor of Political Science and International Relations, Korea University)

This article aims to compare similarities and differences in electoral politics among Southeast Asian new democracies the Philippines, Indonesia, and Thailand. In these countries, pork and patronage play a large role in garnering votes in elections, and legislatures are highly fragmented. Nonetheless, Indonesian politicians tend to deliver less pork, compared to their Philippine and Thai counterparts, and that the Thai parliament has become less fragmented since the emergence of Thaksin, while the legislatures in the Philippines and Indonesia remain highly fragmented. In the article, I argue that in order to promote policy-centered electoral competitions in those countries, their economies should be developed to reduce the number of poor voters who desire pork, and electoral institutions should be reformed toward more party-centered ones. Additionally, in order to reduce the legislative fragmentation, electoral institutions should be reformed toward more restrictive ones such as plurality rules where small parties can hardly survive.