• The Southeast Asian review
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.45-87
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• 2014

This study traces the possibility of political change in the Malaysian electoral history, especially by focusing on the 13th general election held in May 2013. The results of the 13th general election was another turning point in the history of Malaysia's electoral politics. Following after the 12th general election held in 2008, opposition coalition(PR) achieves a remarkable electoral result by obtaining over 50% of the total votes. Opposition parties also successfully collapsed the ruling coalition(BN)'s two-third majority in parliamentary. It was de-facto defeat of the ruling coalition and victory of the opposition coalition. More precisely, the 2013 election results show that the reformasi movement, which was active in 1998-99 period, are still alive and its impact on Malaysian electoral politics get stronger. Malaysia has long been considered as a typical electoral authoritarian regime since its independence in 1957. It is because that there has been negative relations between electoral politics and political change through out its electoral history. As shown in the most recent two general elections held in 2008 and 2013, however, Malaysia's hegemonic political system can be possibly changed through electoral politics. This article examines the detailed results of the series of post-reformarsi general elections(1999, 2004, 2008, 2013) and its political implications towards the nexus of electoral politics and political change under the electoral authoritarian regime in Malaysia.

• SUVANNABHUMI
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.85-106
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• 2014

Protests are not new in Malaysia, though it is restricted by the ruling government. The trend of street protests and demonstrations since the emergence of Coalition for Clean and Fair Elections (Bersih), Malaysia's first people movement on electoral reform, has triggered a sentiment of people power among Malaysian citizens. With protests and popular mobilization becoming pronounced in Malaysian politics, political activism becomes for Malaysians a channel of discontent and expression of political preferences. Using information obtained from interviews with individuals linked to the movement, this paper articulates that protests are no longer exclusive to Malaysians. This paper illustrates the emergence of the Bersih movement and explores the three Bersih mass rallies that took place in 2007, 2011, and 2012. This paper further links the protests with the electoral reform initiatives. It argues that the Bersih movement has managed to lobby fundamental changes in the Malaysian political culture.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.10 no.10
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• pp.274-285
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• 2010

In the United States, a marked emphasis on personal achievement has been among enduring values characterizing American culture from the beginning of the republic. Particularly, Americans have attached great value to the spirit of self-reliance in striving for personal achievement. However, there have been few empirical studies focusing on the effects of Americans' self-reliant spirit on American electoral politics. Through a field experimentation focusing on the voters of Portage County in Ohio, this study examined the effects of Americans' self-reliant spirit on the evaluations of presidential candidates' personal traits, which constitute the candidates' character. The results of this study demonstrated that American voters evaluated those presidential candidates who were described as self-reliant significantly more favorably than the presidential candidates who were not so described, for 8 out of the 11 personal traits. The findings provide meaningful evidence for ascertaining the potential and legitimacy of the influences of the spirit of self-reliance, in the American society including electoral politics.

• SUVANNABHUMI
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.271-303
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• 2023

In 1991, Malaysia, under the leadership of then-Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, launched an ambitious 30-year national development program known as Vision 2020. The goal of this program was to transform Malaysia into a First World developed nation by the year 2020. One of the aspirations of the program was to create a psychologically liberated, secure, ethical, and mature democratic society. Vision 2020 is a failure and Malaysia is still not a mature democracy. This article identifies four main areas that make up a flawed democracy practiced in Malaysia, and shows how they work against the country's aspirations to become a developed nation. The electoral system is rigged to help the incumbent remain in power. The widespread practices of money politics have become a curse to the country. The press and media organizations are restricted. Civil society activities are suppressed. As a result of these issues, Malaysia will not be able to achieve the status of a developed nation, lacking democratic accountability and inclusive institutions.

• Informatization Policy
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.3-19
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• 2013

Studies on the SNS political participation have covered issues of SNS effect on political participation, electoral campaigns, and the public sphere. Such issues as characteristics of SNS political participation, the characteristics of SNS users, SNS effect on the political participation, active SNS political participants, and the impact on young people's political participation, etc. have been studied in the area of political participation effect. On the election issues, SNS impact on election turnout, voting behavior, and the election results were main research topics. Finally, the research on the public sphere mainly discussed topics of quality of SNS information and social fragmentation phenomenon. What is commonly observed across all the three subjects is that the conflicting claims appear to almost all the topics. These contradictory findings are likely to occur because variables of real politics are not fully taken into account and research variables are not strictly manipulated. We can get more accurate research results in the study of SNS political participation when we conduct cross-national research reflecting the context of real politics and also designing independent variables more in detail and elaborately.

• Korean Journal of Legislative Studies
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.131-158
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• 2009

20 years has passed since June democratization movement of 1987 that made the representative system worked democratically on the basis of free election politics. So far, democratic movement bloc has been elected to government power at least two times. Conservative bloc of old ruling forces made a peaceful re-turn-over and grasped the government power. It looks that electoral democracy has been working very well. But people's distrust in Korean politics is not decreasing. Recently, crisis of representation is discussed. Korean representative system faces the dual tasks. One originates from the delay of institutional reform, another from the change of political circumstances. This paper diagnose the Korean representative democracy of today, focusing on those dual tasks. Especially, it is proposed to reform the present Korean presidentialism of winner-takes-all power structure. It is also to resolve the problem of Korean parliamentary politics deeply depending on the presidency.

• Analyses & Alternatives
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• v.1 no.2
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• pp.2-12
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• 2017

Research on democratic transitions has relatively ignored the question of why some countries experience a regressive form of political pacts, while others do not. This paper develops a simple game-theoretic model to explain the phenomenon of collusive pacts in the process of democratization. Trasformismo is a term that refers to a system of political exchange based on informal clientelistic politics. The existing studies of the politics of trasformismo have emphasized the timing of industrialization and the tradition of strong state as conditions of the politics of trasformismo. However, not every late industrializers and not every strong states experienced some variants of collusive political pacts in their trajectories of democratization. In this paper, I contend that the politics of trasformismo is rather a generalizable pattern of political elites' behavior under particular circumstances. By developing a simple game theoretic model, this paper suggests the conditions under which political actors are likely to collude to a regressive form of political pacts. The model shows that the likelihood of collusion to a regressive form of political pacts is a function of a set of parameters. First, a higher level of incumbency advantage in electoral competition is likely to be associated with a higher probability of collusive political pacts. Second, a higher degree of the monopoly of political representation of political parties without a close link with a variety of societal forces is likely to induce collusive behavior among politicians. Third, the ruling party leader's expectations about the likelihood of a safe extrication are related to collusive political pacts. This paper then engages in a case study of the 1990 three-party merger in South Korea. The 1990 Korean case is interesting in that the ruling party created a new party after having merged with two opposition parties. This case can be considered a result of political maneuver in a context of democratization. The case study suggests the empirical relevance of the game-theoretic model. As the game of trasformismo and the case study of the 1990 three-party merger in South Korea have shown, the collusive political pact was neither determined by a certain stage of economic development nor by a particular cultural systems. Rather, it was a product of the art of trasformismo based on party leaders' rational calculations of the expected likelihood of taking governing power.

• The Southeast Asian review
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.213-261
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• 2018

On May 9, 2018, regime change took place in Malaysia. It was the first regime change that took place in 61 years after independence in 1957. The regime change was an unexpected result not only in Malaysian experts but also in political circles. Moreover, the outcome of the election was more shocking because the opposition party was divided in this general election. The regime change in Malaysia was enough to attract worldwide attention because it meant the collapse of the oldest regime in the modern political system that exists, except North Korea and China. How could this have happened? In particular, how could the regime change, which had not been accomplished despite opposition parties' cooperation for almost 20 years, could be achieved with the divided opposition forces? What political implications does the 2018 general election result have for political change and democratization in Malaysia? How will the Malaysian politics be developed in the aftermath of the regime change? It is worth noting that during the process of finding answers, a series of general elections since the start of reformasi in 1998 tended to be likened to a series of "tsunami" in the Malaysian electoral history. This phenomenon of tsunami means that, even though very few predicted the possibility of regime change among academia, civil society and political circles, the regime change was not sudden. In other words, the regime in 2018 was the result of the desire and expectation of political change through a series of elections of Malaysian voters last 20 years. In this context, this study, in analyzing the results of the election in 2018, shows that the activation of electoral politics triggered by the reform movement in 1998, along with the specific situational factors in 2018, could lead to collapse of the ruling government for the first time since independence.

• Korean journal of communication and information
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• v.36
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• pp.198-230
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• 2006

The aim of the this study is to observer paradoxal phenomenon in media election. The media, especially Television, was traditionally a journalistic operation representing political events on the outside of political camp. But recently, it intervenes to 'the political camp' as the most important method for election campaign. A centripetal of electronic medias making the dominant political space offer an alternative plan which get over the modern crisis of representative democracy. Even though, to the production of the political symbol and the operation of symbol which constitute substantial system of political action, the human being subject is excluded and the technical system of communication make up a govern structure. So it makes the contradictory situation. TV broadcast for election campaigning show well this paradoxal situation. The institutionalization of electoral broadcasting oriented by the State strengthens an immensification, an economical and political efficiency and a transparency of electoral campaign. But the means which controls the mind of public is also strengthened. It relates the production and circulation of the political symbol and the symbolic image restricted by dominator. In conclusion, this study argues that the media election is institutionalized by the instrumental reason(procedural rationality of politics and technological rationality of broadcasting), therefore the candidate take a fragment roles for the production of transcendental political symbol and the voters accommodate to the symbolic images which are foreseen and they judge.

• Korean Journal of Legislative Studies
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.39-66
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• 2018

This paper analyzes the structures and issues of 2018 Korean local elections based on the author's observations on the electoral processes. Even if this paper does not follow a traditional statistical method, it provides the interpretative meanings of 2018 local elections by utilizing an expert's observations of campaign processes. This result of 2018 election can be summarized into two analytical frames. In terms of electoral competition structure, three key factors, such as presidential approval rating, party competition structure, ideological spectrum, tend to affect the winning of governing party. In the light of election issue, the inter-Korean summit, the Washington-Pyeongyang summit, Incheon deprecating remark were positive to the vote gains of governing party, but the negative campaign, the drucking scandal and the swing voters were found not to be significant. The local election in Korea tends to show dual meanings, a proxy war of national-level politics and a composition process of local government. This paper found that the 2018 election has dual meanings at the same time, in a sense that it is the punishment of the ex-governing party's wrongdoing and the power change of local government.