Opposition in Asian Constitutional Systems: Characteristics and Potential for Democratic Consolidation

1996 ◽  
Vol 31 (2) ◽  
pp. 175-192 ◽  
Author(s):  
James Cotton

The Analysis of Opposition in Asian Political Systems raises acute problems of definition. At one end of a continuum lie those polities in which an ‘opposition’ is either inconceivable (North Korea is perhaps the best example) or inevitably in a state of war or confrontation with the regime (as is the case in Burma/Myanmar). In cases at this end of the continuum opposition cannot be democratic in the systemic sense, unless the opposition realizes its programme and becomes a democratic government. At the other end of the continuum, however, the character, standing and potential of ‘opposition’ is very much a matter of debate. In these systems a multiplicity of non-governing political parties exist, and these parties contest elections and send members to legislatures, though they often operate under rules (informal as well as formal) and conditions which tend to prevent them from gaining power. The focus of this article will be upon these systems, which are here labelled – whether parliamentary or presidential – ‘constitutional’. ‘Constitutional’ is understood as entailing the existence of an embedded and more or less regularly operating set of electoral mechanisms which plays an essential part in the selection of the government.

1992 ◽  
Vol 24 (4) ◽  
pp. 430-454 ◽  
Author(s):  
JOHN R. HIBBING ◽  
SAMUEL C. PATTERSON

Changes in the rules of the electoral game in established political systems normally can bring about marginal shifts in partisan biases, but in the early days of fragile, new democracies, the electoral law carries great significance. The historic March-April 1990 elections in Hungary provide an opportunity to investigate the political effects of a system that merges single-member and proportional selection of parliamentarians. This system led to the impressive electoral victory of the Hungarian (Magyar) Democratic Forum (MDF). The authors analyze the electoral biases that contributed to the MDF victory and, by the same token, to the fate of the other political parties. They evaluate the electoral system in light of its probable consequences for effective democratic government in Hungary.


2018 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 7
Author(s):  
John Bwalya ◽  
Owen B. Sichone

Despite the important role that intra-party democracy plays in democratic consolidation, particularly in third-wave democracies, it has not received as much attention as inter-party democracy. Based on the Zambian polity, this article uses the concept of selectocracy to explain why, to a large extent, intra-party democracy has remained a refractory frontier. Two traits of intra-party democracy are examined: leadership transitions at party president-level and the selection of political party members for key leadership positions. The present study of four political parties: United National Independence Party (UNIP), Movement for Multiparty Democracy (MMD), United Party for National Development (UPND) and Patriotic Front (PF) demonstrates that the iron law of oligarchy predominates leadership transitions and selection. Within this milieu, intertwined but fluid factors, inimical to democratic consolidation but underpinning selectocracy, are explained.


2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 1490
Author(s):  
Fifiana WISNAENI

The regional head as the organizer of the government in the region is also an extension of the central government, has a pretty heavy task, therefore in order for the State's goals to be achieved, regional heads must be chosen that are truly credible, qualified and qualified, so that it can bring success to regional development in carrying out government affairs as mandated by the Act, which will ultimately have a positive impact, in the form of support for national development. This research is intended to examine, criticize and analyze which are expected to provide solutions related to the development of the authority to form laws in the constitutional system of the Republic of Indonesia. The formulation of the problem in this study are the dynamics of regional elections in Indonesia in the reformation era and the implications of the dynamics of regional elections in the Indonesian constitutional system. The method of approach used in this study is normative juridical, which is an approach that uses the positivist concept which states that law is identical with written norms created and enacted by authorized institutions or officials. The dynamics of regional head elections in Indonesia in the Reformation era include the conditions for pairs of candidates for regional head elections and the mechanism for regional head elections. Pairs of regional head candidates must be proposed by political parties or a combination of eligible political parties.  


1988 ◽  
Vol 27 (3) ◽  
pp. 283-314 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kenneth D. Wald

Every step towards our goal is dependent on gaining the assent and support of at least a numerical majority of the whole people. Thus, even if we aimed at revolutionizing everything at once, we should necessarily be compelled to make each particular change only at the time, and to the extent, and in the manner which ten or fifteen million electors, in all sorts of conditions, of all sorts of temperaments, from Land's End to the Orkneys, could be brought to consent to it.Now, anybody can see the difficulties which politicians must encounter when they are trying to get votes from the West End of London and South Wales at the same time.Whatever else it might be, whatever its other functions or activities in modern democratic societies, a political party is first and foremost an organization that seeks control of government through the electoral process. Unless it first attains the legitimate governing authority that accompanies majority status, a political party cannot implement the policies necessary to realize its vision of the just society, nor can it fulfill the other roles assigned to parties by modern democratic theory. For just such reasons, it is commonly said that votes are to political parties what profits are to corporations; just as corporate behavior would be incomprehensible without reference to the profit motive, so party behavior is often inexplicable without recognizing the centrality of electoral competition. For parties with normative goals in countries with democratic political systems, the drive for electoral supremacy must be a constant concern.


2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 131
Author(s):  
Moch. Marsa Taufiqurrohman

Artikel ini berupaya meninjau kembali praktik koalisi partai politik di tengah sistem presidensial pasca reformasi, dan menilai sejauh mana dampaknya terhadap kestabilan pemerintahan. Pasca reformasi 1998, sejumlah besar partai politik telah didirikan, menunjukkan bahwa munculnya fragmentasi politik adalah sesuatu yang tidak terhindarkan. Alih-alih melaksanakan pemerintahan secara sehat, partai politik membentuk koalisi untuk memperkuat kedudukan mereka di parlemen. Implikasi penerapan multi partai dalam sistem presidensial ini seringkali menimbulkan deadlock antara eksekutif dan legislatif. Sistem presidensial yang dikombinasikan dengan sistem multi partai dapat menjadi sistem yang stabil dan efektif dengan cara penyederhanaan partai politik, desain pelembagaan koalisi, dan pengaturan pelembagaan oposisi. Namun di sisi lain koalisi juga menjadi sangat berpengaruh pada stabilitas pemerintahan. Dengan menggunakan metode penelitian yuridis normatif, artikel ini bertujuan untuk meneliti politik hukum terkait praktik koalisi partai politik di Indonesia dan mengetahui upaya-upaya dalam praktik ketatanegaraan yang dapat merealisasikan stabilitas sistem pemerintahan presidensial pada koalisi di multi partai. Artikel ini menemukan kesimpulan bahwa model pemilihan legislatif dan eksekutif yang dipilih langsung oleh rakyat justru menjadi penyebab disharmonisasi antara legislatif dan eksekutif yang mengarah kepada terjadinya kebuntuan antar kedua lembaga tersebut. Lebih-lebih apabila yang menguasai lembaga ekesekutif dan lembaga legislatif adalah dari latar belakang partai politik yang berbeda. Akibatnya, praktik koalisi seperti ini cenderung mengakibatkan lebih banyak masalah, sehingga penerapan sistem ini memiliki dampak signifikan terhadap demokrasi yang didefinisikan dan dinegosiasikan. This article attempts to review the practice of coalitions of political parties in the post-reform presidential system and assess the extent of their impact on the stability of the government. Post-1998 reform, a large number of political parties have been established, suggesting that the emergence of political fragmentation is inevitable. Instead of implementing a healthy government, political parties formed coalitions to strengthen their positions in parliament. The implication of implementing multi-party in the presidential system often creates deadlocks between the executive and the legislature. A presidential system combined with a multi-party system can become a stable and effective system by simplifying political parties, designing institutionalized coalitions, and organizing opposition institutions. But on the other hand, the coalition has also greatly influenced the stability of the government. By using normative juridical research methods, this article aims to examine legal politics related to the practice of political party coalitions in Indonesia and to find out the efforts in state administration practices that can realize the stability of the presidential system of government in multi-party coalitions. This article finds the conclusion that the legislative and executive election models directly elected by the people are the cause of disharmony between the legislature and the executive which leads to a deadlock between the two institutions. This is even more so if those who control the executive and legislative bodies are from different political party backgrounds. As a result, coalition practices like this are likely to cause more problems, so the adoption of these systems has a significant impact on defined and negotiated democracy.


2019 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 138-157
Author(s):  
Sunarto Sunarto

Amendment of the 1945 Constitution brought significant shifting on the Indonesian government. Before amendment, the government was dominated by the enormous power of President (executive heavy). The amendment strengthens the DPR’s power realizing the checks and balances between DPR and President. The amendment of the 1945 Constitution also brought the purification of presidential system. These two things make the dynamics of relationship between the DPR and the President. In post amendments, the government is characterized by an increasing controlling function of DPR. But the combination of presidential system and the multi-party still brings problem related to government instability. Relationship between the DPR and the President was strongly influenced by the presence of opposition parties, which in the previous was regarded as “a taboo” in Indonesian democracy. On the other hand, the elected president also became a strong magnet to get the support of political parties in DPR. Therefore, certain parties that previously became the government’s opposition crossed and supported government. Thus, the presumption that the elected President would find difficulties in implementing his policies because of the lack of support in the DPR was not proven.


2012 ◽  
Vol 49 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 377-395
Author(s):  
Saumyajit Ray

In the presidential system of government in the United States, the President’s party has on more than one occasion been reduced to a minority in the federal legislature. The US President and the Speaker of the House of Representatives—the leader of the majority party—had often found themselves clashing on matters of policy, legislation, and executive action. This essay makes a careful selection of five House Speakers in the post-1945 period, all belonging to the ‘other party’, and explores their relations with the Presidents of their times. Out of these, only Newt Gingrich succeeded in dividing the government as never before, demonstrating that the House Speaker had the capacity to stall government altogether, something even a ‘Leader of the Opposition’ in a parliamentary system can never do.


2020 ◽  
pp. 56-92
Author(s):  
Geoff Harkness

This chapter examines Qatar’s development in the context of the Arabian Gulf, the site of enormous human activity, trade, and commerce from ancient times until today. It considers how tribes influenced social and political systems in the Gulf, including the Al Thanis, the dynastic family that has ruled Qatar for more than 150 years. During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the Gulf was known for its pearling and fishing industries. The contemporary Gulf is characterized by modern petrocities whose enormous wealth services their nation-building aspirations. Doha vies directly with Dubai to see which metropolis can outdo the other, be it through sports, education, shopping malls, mosques, or broken world records. To compete, Qatar brands itself using a narrative of modern traditionalism, drawing from a constellation of classic and contemporary traits. The chapter explores the contours of modern traditionalism, unpacking its multiple meanings and characteristics, including generic but esteemed concepts such as freedom, authenticity, family values, and women’s empowerment. It also reveals how the government deliberately deemphasizes tribes and Islam in the narrative in order to curtail tribal power and replace it with a bureaucratic government structured to grant supremacy to the Al Thani dynasty.


2017 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 133-142
Author(s):  
Evie Ariadne Shinta Dewi

The main thesis of this paper is reveals how the process of political communication should take place in order to achieve the idealization of democracy in accordance with the objectives of post-collapse reform of the authoritarian new order era. After nearly 18 years of reformation, substantial issues and basic problems still seem to burden the government. On the other hand, political democratization process seems to be influenced by the old pattern. This paper elaborates how the role of political communication in the process of democratization has been going on. The data obtained through documentation studies from various sources. The results of the study indicate that a state that should be positioned as the main actor in the process of political communication is often overlooked because of the large number of noise that caused by the main message of the state which is not well conveyed. As the result, the institutionalization of democratic values is still not the main commitment of the political parties. In the future, this country needs a strategy that puts the state both as a communicator and a communicant, so that the consolidation of democracy can be realized soon.


nauka.me ◽  
2017 ◽  
pp. 0
Author(s):  
Anton Arutynov

The article is dedicated to the theoretical research and analyses of practice of social activity, which is practiced by institute of political party in the process voting and electoral process, that is why, the goal is to make a complex view of functions and role of this special institute, also it plays a duale role, because, on the one hand, it allows civil society to rule the government and taking a kind of socialization of individuals by making them closer to the groups of political and party elite, on the other hand, it make possible to the state machine make its workplaces full with the most active and perfect candidates from the political parties by the democracy procedures and strict selection of candidates.


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