Publication Date

2015

Document Type

Dissertation/Thesis

First Advisor

Schraufnagel, Scot D.

Degree Name

M.A. (Master of Arts)

Legacy Department

Department of Political Science

LCSH

Political science; Political parties--Southeast Asia; Political parties--Indonesia; Political parties--Malaysia; Political parties--Singapore; Political parties--Philippines; Political parties--Thailand

Abstract

This thesis examines the factors that influence the effective number of political parties in five Southeast Asian countries: Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, the Philippines, and Thailand. Specifically, it will examine the association between the number of political parties as the dependent variable and the three independent variables, which are the electoral system; the social, religious and ethnic cleavages; and the role of patron-client relationships. This research is an attempt to provide a cross-sectional study of Southeast Asian political parties with an aim to uncover an explanation for the variance in the number of political parties found in the region. Specifically, the goal is to explain which combination of the different variables will have the greatest influence on the effective number of political parties in each country with an eye toward determining if there are any generalizable explanations. This study concludes that electoral laws are the deciding factor for the number of political parties in the case for Malaysia and Singapore. In the cases for Thailand and the Philippines, this study concludes that there are further variables outside the scope of the three variables studied that can possibly contribute to the outcome of political parties. In the study of Indonesia, this study concludes that all three variables contributed to the multi-party outcome.

Comments

Advisors: Scot Schraufnagel.||Committee members: Kikue Hamayotsu; Kheung Un.

Extent

130 pages

Language

eng

Publisher

Northern Illinois University

Rights Statement

In Copyright

Rights Statement 2

NIU theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from Huskie Commons for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without the written permission of the authors.

Media Type

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