Suchergebnisse

A key part of what sustains electoral authoritarianism over the long term is genuine popular support. Dominant parties, particularly in a developmental context (the primary setting for such regimes), and especially where elections are more than minimally meaningful, curry performance legitimacy and loyalty not just through skewed rules and coercion, but through material incentives: "money politics." If challengers can find a way to de-emphasize support based on material inducements, they stand a chance of securing gains via elections, rather than relying on economic downturns to shrink patronage coffers. Drawing on extensive original ethnographic and survey data from electoral-authoritarian Malaysia, I explore campaign finance and distributions on both sides in the latest, most regime-threatening general election, which was held on May 5, 2013. Evidence suggests that it was by disentangling clientelist networks from the patronage they so often serve to disseminate, allowing a focus on more programmatic than particularistic appeals, that the opposition Pakatan Rakyat alliance so nearly bested the long-dominant Barisan Nasional regime. Persona - being known and seen among the electorate - still matters as much as before, but relies less consistently than in the past on targeted patronage as a premise for loyalty. (Crit Asian Stud/GIGA)

The incumbent coalition claimed victory in Malaysia's 13th general elections in May 2013, securing a simple majority of parliamentary seats despite losing the popular vote. The dramatic result raises questions not only about the probity of the electoral process in Malaysia but also about the future of party politics there.

The seeming entrenchment of a two-coalition system in Malaysia solidifies the centrality of strongly institutionalised parties in the polity. The primary parties in Malaysia reach deeply into society and nest within dense networks of both intra-party and external organisations. Given this order - which differentiates Malaysia from its neighbours in the region - political liberalisation, if it happens, should be expected largely via electoral politics, and, specifically, through inter-party challenges. Indeed, the ideological and material premises of the emergent Pakatan Rakyat (People's Alliance) differ substantially from those of the long-standing Barisan Nasional (National Front), even as both pursue the same broad swathe of voters. This distinction reflects and furthers transformation in Malaysian politics, including not just a shift in the salience of communal identities and in policy proposals and issues, but also in patterns of political engagement both within and outside of parties, regardless of which coalition controls parliament. (JCSA/GIGA)