Votes, Party Systems and Democracy in Asia

This book looks at the link between voters and political party systems in Asian democracies, focusing on India, Indonesia, Korea and the Philippines. It discusses this link in terms of three distinct elements: the formation of voters preferences, the translation of preferences into votes, and the translation of votes into seats. The book goes on to discuss how far the general rules of political party systems and their underlying causal mechanisms such as strategic voting are apparent in these Asian democracies. In particular, it explores the extent to which electoral rules and social structural variables affect the process of transforming preferences into a political party system within the context of Asian politics.The extensive areas covered by the book overcome the traditional sub-regional division of Asia, namely, East, Southeast and South Asia.