Political Party and Party System Institutionalisation in Southeast Asia: A Comparison of Indonesia, the Philippines, and Thailand

Abstract

It is generally acknowledged that a higher degree of party and party system institutionali-sation is positively correlated with the consolidation of democracy. It is, thus, useful to compare different levels and types of institutionalisation. In this article the distinction made by Levitsky (‘value infusion’ vs. ‘behavioural routinisation’) with reference to party institutionalisation will be employed. Moreover, institutionalised party systems are char-acterized, according to Mainwaring and Torcal, by ‘stability of interparty competition’. The empirical research of this paper finds that the early organisational consolidation of so-cial cleavages, such as in Indonesia, enhances institutionalisation. Furthermore, the rela-tion between central and local elites appears to be essential: strong bosses or cliques un-dermine institutionalisation in the Philippines and in Thailand respectively. Most Indone-sian parties are better institutionalised than those in the Philippines and Thailand with reference to ‘value infusion’. In addition, the party system in Indonesia is better institu-tionalised in terms of ‘stability of interparty competition’.political party institutionalisation, party system institutionalisation, South-east Asia, Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand