This essay focuses on the subset of semiauthoritarian systems that Beatriz Magaloni calls hegemonic-party autocracies. In such autocracies, a single party or coalition holds power without interruption for several decades under semiauthoritarian conditions while conducting regular multiparty elections. Within this category, the experiences of Mexico and the Republic of China (ROC or Taiwan) from the l980s to 2000 are particularly helpful in illuminating the current political dynamics in Malaysia and its prospects (or lack thereof) for democratization.
About the Author
Joan M. Nelson, scholar in residence at American University’s School of International Service, held the Pok Rafeah Chair in International Studies at the National University of Malaysia’s Institute of Malaysian and International Studies in 2006–2007. She is coeditor (with Jacob Meerman and Abdul Rahman Haji Embong) of Globalization and National Autonomy: The Experience of Malaysia (2008).
The swelling pessimism about democracy’s future is unwarranted. Values focused on human freedom are spreading throughout the world, and suggest that the future of self-government is actually quite bright.
In the November 1999 presidential election, Uruguayans reaffirmed their strong commitment to democracy, while adjusting to a set of constitutional reforms that profoundly altered the electoral system.
