Abstract
Presidential democracies1
in Asia are back in the limelight. Long seen as potentially
‘perilous’ for political stability after a series of contested presidential impeachments in, among
others, South Korea, Taiwan, the Philippines, and Indonesia,2
attention has recently shifted
to an opposite concern: the rise of presidencies that dominate legislatures, and often, under a
populist guise, have actively engaged in ‘executive aggrandisement’ that raises once more the
spectre of authoritarianism in the region.3
Perhaps this is most obvious in Southeast Asia’s most important presidential regimes: the
Philippines and Indonesia. In the Philippines, Asia’s oldest presidential system, President
Duterte (2016–22) has shown an unprecedented number of illiberal transgressions that are
reminiscent of the Marcos dictatorship—a pattern made possible by the president’s control
over both the House of Representatives and the Senate.4
In Indonesia, under the increasingly assertive presidency of Joko Widodo (2014–), the People’s Representative Council
(DPR), Indonesia’s notoriously fractured legislature, has allowed the president to go virtually
unchecked through his second term, which has renewed concerns about ‘democratic backsliding’ in what to date had been one of Asia’s most vibrant democracies.5
Such developments in its largest democracies raise serious questions about the changing
nature of presidential democracies in Asia, and especially executive-legislative relations. As
populist leadership grows in the region, we ask: How are presidents using their formal constitutional and informal partisan powers to reshape executive-legislative relations? And how
are these actions affecting democratic quality and liberal-constitutional practice in their
countries?
Original language | English |
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Title of host publication | Routledge Handbook of Asian Parliaments |
Editors | Po Jen Yap, Rehan Abeyratne |
Place of Publication | London |
Publisher | Routledge |
Pages | 82-99 |
Edition | 1 |
ISBN (Print) | 9781003109402 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 2023 |