Asian Journal of Comparative Politics

This article explores the concept of “populist hangover” in the context of Southeast Asia. Its intention is to provide analysts of populism with a series of lessons derived from the Southeast Asian experience. “Populist hangover” is the notion that, though democrats bemoan the arrival of the populist due to the use of popular support to dismantle effective democratic institutions, the departure of the populist does not return the polity to its previous institutional standard. The primary reason for this is the fact that populism’s emergence is both a cause and symptom of social/political exclusion. As a result, the departure of the populist prior to the resolution of this exclusion creates social/political circumstances not conducive to a “return to normal”, democratic or otherwise. The article uses two “populist hangover” cases to support its theoretical argument – the “short hangover” of the Thai military’s political re-emergence and the “long hangover” of the continued hegemonic authoritarian rule of the People’s Action Party in Singapore.

The foreign policy of the Islamic Republic of Iran in the administration of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, due to its importance and its not so in significant achievements, from the structuralist point of view, created a different identity and role in international relations and a special approach in relation to foreign and international systems. The author’s main question is that what impact has the foreign policy of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had in the international community? It seems that the role of domestic norms that came from the international community was damaged by internal policies due to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s policies, which, from the structuralist point of view, had a profound effect on the declining of Iranian foreign policy during the Ahmadinejad era in the international system. Direct conflict with the global system, presenting incorrect policies of foreign policy of the Islamic Republic, the lack accepting common understanding minds of the international community, non-convergence in foreign policy, the adoption of irrational foreign policy, are all important factors that could undermine the foreign policy of the Islamic Republic of Iran in the public opinion of the international community.

This research note empirically examines China’s development assistance to Asia, a region critical to China’s geostrategic ambition, from 2000 to 2014. It uses AidData’s Global Chinese Official Finance Dataset, one of the most reliable publicly available data sources on Chinese aid, which systematically collects and classifies different types of China’s official development finance. It is found that, despite a recent surge, China’s development assistance to Asia remains highly limited compared to that of Japan, Asia’s top donor, and that the economic sectors of energy, transport, and mining dominate financial flows. Econometric analysis results suggest that China’s aid allocation in Asia is influenced by its export relations, but, more importantly, that foreign policy considerations do not play a significant role, which is in contrast to the findings of recent work on Chinese aid to Africa. The results suggest that better measures may be needed to properly capture China’s strategic interests in Asia, including its involvement in the territorial dispute in the South China Sea.

Critics of Philippine democracy have pointed out that the unitary system employed since the country became a sovereign state in 1946 led to the prolonged underdevelopment of sub-national regions (provinces). Hence, policy makers have put forward the argument that a shift to a Federal system is necessary because of the imperial Manila syndrome. This is the notion that political, economic, and social underdevelopment is more prevalent the farther away a province is from the capital, Metro-Manila, which has been a longstanding theory of ‘core-periphery’ dynamics in political geography. Using sub-national data derived from Philippine provinces, the study finds that provinces farther away from Manila in terms of geodesic distance are indeed disadvantaged not only in terms of economic, poverty, and human development indicators, but also in terms of dependence on internal revenue allotments which inhibits local growth. Physical distance from the capital also decreases rural funds for provincial development. The implications suggest that a Federal arrangement can promote peripheral growth and development, but it certainly is not a panacea.

Based on a comparative survey conducted in 2016, this article explores the social actions of young people in Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macao from the perspective of social injustice and social frustration as advanced by Gurr (2011). Applying a two-dimensional model of perceptions of social and individual fairness, it is found that young people in Taiwan and Hong Kong have higher levels of frustration and show greater tolerance and acceptance towards radical confrontational approaches than those in Macao. Furthermore, in Hong Kong, young people with a higher level of both social and individual unfairness display more interest in local politics, are more likely to take part in social movements, and are more inclined to agree to a radical confrontational approach.

Despite rapidly growing literature on populism in advanced democracies, Japan is often overlooked. However, Japan has certainly not been immune to populist phenomena. In fact, populist politics in Japan can be divided into two categories: the first was in the 2000s, when Prime Minister Koizumi implemented vast reforms, and the second has proponents among the governors and mayors of big cities, such as Yasuo Tanaka, Toru Hashimoto, and Koike Yuriko. They have principally promoted neoliberal reforms, such as market deregulation, overhauling administrative systems, and limiting trade union autonomy. The economic interventionism and political authoritarianism characterizing recent populism in the West are not found in Japan, which explains why the literature has neglected Japanese cases of populism. Focusing mainly on the second type of populism, this article argues analytically that populism in Japan must be understood as a political strategy employed by the local executives. By examining cases of populist Japanese governors and mayors, we observe that populist politics are fueled at the local level by the institutional settings and electoral systems in regional politics. Aiming to contribute to the literature on varieties of populism, the article emphasizes theoretically that institutional mechanisms tend to foster populist politicians in Japan.

The Kurdistan region of Iraq has a substantial number of the customary signs of political system, including the various main branches of the state institutions such as executive, courts, and assembly. Since 1991, the Region has established as certain political system that adheres to a commonly acknowledged type of system of government. Some contend that the political system in the region is a presidential system, however with parliament having had the ability to vote the President in or out for quite a while. Political division, explicitly between the political parties, has ended up being a veritable obstruction to the political advancement and strength of the Region and to concocting a bound together type of political system. The region has suffered from lack of constitution; this has caused political conflicts over the law of the presidency of the region and the ways of electing the President. Therefore, when Barzani's presidency term ended in August 2015, the political parties except the KDP attempted to amend the presidential law and make another law to elect the president inside the parliament until writing the constitution for the Region in which the political parties can agree on the form of the political system and the way of electing the President. This article contends that there is a connection between the nature and structure of the political parties and the political systems that have been proposed as a ruling model for the region. The article also concludes by identifying potential systems of government available to the KRI and the potential consequences of each.