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Presidentialism and democracy in East and Southeast Asia: Between Resilience and Regression / Marco Bünte and Mark R. Thompson -- South Korea: Presidentialism in historical and sociological perspectives / Erik Mobrand -- Philippines: Imperiled and imperious presidents (but not perilous presidentialism) / Mark R. Thompson -- Indonesia: Presidential politics and democratic regression / Dirk Tomsa -- Indonesia: Tales of presidentialization / Andreas Ufen -- Taiwan: The limited but beneficial role of semi-presidentialism / Christian Schafferer -- East Timor: Semi-Presidentialism and the tribulations of a new democracy / Rui Graça Fejó -- Myanmar: Hybrid presidentialism and democratic breakdown / Marco Bünte.

"Presidentialism and Democracy in East and Southeast Asia examines the impact of presidential systems on democracies by examining three distinct literatures - the perilousness of competing legitimacies of the executive and legislative branches, issues of institutional design (particularly regarding semi-presidentialism), and the rise of executive aggrandizement. Despite often intense political conflict and temporary instability in the East and Southeast Asia, presidential systems of various types - from relatively "pure" forms to semi-presidentialism and other hybrids - have largely been resilient. Although there are signs of growing autocratization in several cases, presidentialism, associated with both accommodation and conflict, has usually not driven it. This book's contributions to presidentialism debates will be of interests to students and scholars of comparative politics while it also offers detailed analysis of the presidency in these East and Southeast Asian cases"--

The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed enormous governance deficits globally. Several populist strongmen practiced "medical populism" – ignoring scientific advice, proffering denials, and blaming others. More technocratic leaders recognised its severity, implementing strict lockdowns. But some failed to adopt more flexible restrictions once testing improved due to local enforcement difficulties, termed "blunt force regulation." Although neither a pandemic denialist nor an obtuse technocrat, Philippine president Rodrigo R. Duterte's response combined aspects of both approaches with blame shifting and one-size-fits-all lockdowns while also securitising the crisis. Utilising methods developed during his bloody "war on drugs," Duterte imposed a heavily militarised approach, scapegoated supposedly disobedient Filipinos (pasaway) and bullied local politicians. While the Philippines has been among the worst pandemic performers globally, Duterte's approval ratings remained robust. It is argued "brute force governance" undermined the dynamics of accountability, enabling him to win public approval despite policy failure. (JCSA/GIGA)

Abstract
Two influential explanations of Duterte's surprising rise and rule are his "penal populist" leadership style and a structural crisis of oligarchic democracy. The populist leadership perspective explains "too little" about the extreme violence of Duterte's illiberal rule and the vulnerability of the prevailing political order to it. The oligarchic-democracy-in-crisis view, on the other hand, explains "too much" because it is overly generalized and determinist, thus unable to account for what in particular triggered Duterte's rise despite political stability and economic growth. The article offers a third explanation that integrates a leadership perspective into an oligarchic framework using a "structuration" approach. It focuses on how Duterte's leadership style enabled him to take advantage of a disjunctive moment in the country's "liberal reformist" political structure, a distinct subset of oligarchic democracy.

Southeast Asia's Troubling Elections: Is There a Silver Lining? Mark R. Thompson, Journal of Democracy, Volumen 30, Número 4, octubre de 2019, pp. 149-157 (Artículo) Publicado por Johns Hopkins University Press. Traducción desde el inglés hecha por Fernando Pedrosa y Max Povse.

Making sense of democracy and governance in the Asia-Pacific / Stephen McCarthy and Mark R. Thompson -- Democracy and governance : a conceptual analysis of a contested relation / Riccardo Pelizzo -- Singapore : challenges of 'good governance' without liberal democracy / Netina Tan -- The good versus the many : 'good governance' and democracy in Thailand and the Philippines / Mark R. Thompson -- Electoral governance : models of democracy in Asia and the Pacific / Benjamin Reilly -- Can Solomon Islands escape its clientelist trap? / Terrence Wood -- Governance, rule of law and judicial reform challenges in contemporary Cambodia / Lucy West -- Governance and the rule of law : reflections on tensions in Thailand / Bjoern Dressel -- Militarized civil society and governance in the Asia Pacific : Burma (Myanmar) and Fiji / Stephen McCarthy -- Think tanks and the governance of political transformation in China / Paul Howard and Doug Smith -- Governance and Christianity in the PRC / David SchakInde.

Introduction : China's Singapore Model and Authoritarian Learning / Stephan Ortmann and Mark R. Thompson -- The Origins of the Singapore Fever in China : 1978-1992 / Yang Kai and Stephan Ortmann -- Misunderstanding Singapore : China's Challenges in Learning from the City-State / Mark R. Thompson and Stephan Ortmann -- The Singapore School - Technocracy or less / Michael D. Barr -- Branding China : How Beijing Seeks to Improve its National image by learning from Singapore / Benjamin Tze Ern Ho -- Singapore's Role in China's Reform Process : Sharing of Experiences under the Joint Council for Bilateral Cooperation Framework / Lye Liang Fook -- Cadre Training and Government-to-Government Collaborations : Governance Knowledge Transfer from Singapore to China / Wang, Ting-Yan -- Singapore's Social Welfare System and Its Influence on China / Wei Wei -- Learning Local Lessons from Singapore in post-1978 China / Cao Yunhua -- The "Singapore Fever" in China : Policy Mobility and Mutation / Kean Fan Lim and Niv Horesh.

1. Introduction -- 2. Discovering Authoritarian Modernism: Secrets of the State -- 3. Becoming Authoritarian Modern: Escaping the Modernization Trap -- 4. Learning Authoritarian Modernism: China's "Singapore Model" -- 5. Legitimizing Authoritarian Modernism: Reactionary Culturalism -- 6. Conclusion