Parliaments in Asia Institution Building and Political Development

Much writing on politics in Asia revolves around the themes of democracy and democratisation with a particular focus on political systems and political parties. This book, on the other hand, examines the role that parliaments – a key institution of democracy – play in East, Southeast and South Asia including Taiwan and Hong Kong. Parliaments in these locations function in a variety of historical, political and socio-economic circumstances with different implications for institution building and political development. This book examines questions like how accessible, representative, transparent, accountable and effective are parliaments? To what extent are parliaments able to hold other political actors to account or how far are they constrained by the political environment in which they operate? Going further, this book considers how new media such as the Internet and other social platforms, through providing avenues for individuals to articulate their views separate from official channels, are influencing the ways parliaments work. To stay relevant, parliamentarians need to reach out and engage these individuals in formulating, deciding and fine-tuning policies. In the information age, being a parliamentarian has become more challenging and how a parliamentarian copes with this change will shape the nature and pace of political development.

1. Introduction: Parliaments in Asia: Institutional building and political development Zheng Yongnian, Lye Liang Fook, Wilhelm Hofmeister 2. Parliaments in East Asia: Between Democracy and "Asian" characteristics?Lam Peng Er 3. The Singapore Parliament: Representation, effectiveness, and controlKenneth Paul Tan 4. The Role of the People’s Congress System in China’s PoliticsLi Jianyong 5. Vietnam’s National Assembly’s Institutionalization and Transformed FunctionsPham Ngoc Thach 6. The Thai Parliament: A weak cornerstone in the building of democracySiripan Nogsuan Sawasdee 7. The Path toward a more Substantial Democracy? Lessons and challenges of Indonesia’s parliament during Reformasi eraTirta N. Mursitama andPatrya Pratama 8. Parliamentary Politics Vis-à-vis Judicial Strategies: Promoting reproductive health in a catholic country Elizabeth Aguiling-Pangalangan9. Parliamentary Reform and Good Governance: Theoretical basis and the relationship between the government and the parliament in JapanHiraku Yamamoto 10. The National Assembly in Democratized Korea: Marching to the center from the margins of policy stage?Chan Wook Park 11. Renewing India: Democratic accountability and parliamentBalveer Arora 12. Election without Representation: Hong Kong legislative council and its implications to non-liberal regimesBill K.P. Chou 13. Democratic Representation in Taiwan’s Parliament: Evolution of constituency service from SNTV to single member district electoral system Chen-shen J. Yen andHung-chung Wang

Zheng Yongnian is Professor and Director of East Asian Institute, National University of Singapore. Lye Liang Fook is a Research Fellow at the East Asia Institute, National University of Singapore. Wilhelm Hofmeister is the Director of the Konrad Adenhauer Foundation’s Political Dialogue with Asia Program, based in Singapore.