Some fledging democracies in the world have encountered setbacks due to political parties trying to grapple with the expectations of sophisticated electorates and introducing gradual political reforms over the years.

This book describes how democracy is evolving in East Asia and how it assumes different forms in different countries, with political parties adapting and evolving alongside. It has a two-fold intent. First, it contends that the existing variety of party systems in East Asia will endure and may even flourish, rather than converge as liberal democracies. Second, it highlights the seeming political durability of one party systems — unlike two-part or multi-party systems in the US and Europe — and their enduring predominance in countries such as Cambodia, China, Singapore and Vietnam.

Introduction (L F Lye and W Hofmeister)

One Party System:

• Is Democratization Compatible with China’s One-Party System? (Y-N Zheng and L F Lye)
• The Vietnamese Communist Party and Renovation (Doi Moi) in Vietnam (D L Thuy)

One Party Dominant System:

• Cambodia: A Hegemonic Party System in the Making (S Peou)
• The People’s Action Party and Political Liberalization in Singapore (K P Tan)
• The End of One-Party Dominance and Japan’s Emergence as a “Common Democracy” (P E Lam)

Multi-Party System:

• Thai Political Parties in the Age of the Great Divide (P Chachavalpongpun)
• Last Chapter of an Uneasy Partnership: The Loss of Jusuf Kalla in the 2009 Presidential Election (S Hadi)
• Political Parties and Party System in Korea after Democratization: Cartelized Party System and Oscillations Between Two Models (S-H Lim)
• Priorities for Philippine Political Parties: Mass Membership, Political Education, and Party Development Law (D T Gonzalez)
• Taiwan’s Democratization and the Freezing of the Party System (H-Y Shyu)
• Two Key Stumbling Blocks for Hong Kong’s Democratization: Personal Vote and Beijing’s Policies (H Y Li)