IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/rjapxx/v21y2016i4p467-488.html

An Oaxaca-decomposition analysis of popular support for democracy in Southeast Asian countries: are the middle classes different from the rest?

Author

Listed:
  • Joseph J. Capuno

Abstract

Recent decades witnessed economic and political developments in Asia, especially in the Southeast Asia region, that warrant a re-examination of popular support for democracy among socioeconomic classes in the region. Using the 2010--2012 round of the Asian Barometer Survey, we constructed seven indicators of support for democracy and three socioeconomic classes for Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore and Thailand. The tests of proportions indicate that for each country, a high percentage of each class generally expresses support for democracy. Where inter-class differences are significant, the Oaxaca decompositions reveal that in Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand these are largely due to dissimilarities in class characteristics (like average education). In Indonesia and the Philippines, the differences in average class characteristics matter less than the heterogeneous effects of the characteristics. Thus, democratic consensus among socioeconomic classes can be promoted through policies that promote class parity in, say, educational attainment or employment status, but more directly in Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand than in Indonesia and the Philippines.

Suggested Citation

  • Joseph J. Capuno, 2016. "An Oaxaca-decomposition analysis of popular support for democracy in Southeast Asian countries: are the middle classes different from the rest?," Journal of the Asia Pacific Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 21(4), pages 467-488, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:rjapxx:v:21:y:2016:i:4:p:467-488
    DOI: 10.1080/13547860.2016.1201970
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/13547860.2016.1201970
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/13547860.2016.1201970?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Acemoglu,Daron & Robinson,James A., 2009. "Economic Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521671422, Enero-Abr.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Mohammad Zulfan Tadjoeddin, 2012. "Electoral conflict and the maturity of local democracy in Indonesia: testing the modernisation hypothesis," Journal of the Asia Pacific Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 17(3), pages 476-497.
    2. Leopoldo Fergusson & Carlos Molina, 2020. "Facebook Causes Protests," HiCN Working Papers 323, Households in Conflict Network.
    3. Daron Acemoglu & James A. Robinson, 2013. "Ekonomia kontra polityka: niebezpieczne rady w kwestiach polityki ekonomicznej," Gospodarka Narodowa. The Polish Journal of Economics, Warsaw School of Economics, issue 11-12, pages 113-136.
    4. Skoufias, Emmanuel & Narayan, Ambar & Dasgupta, Basab & Kaiser, Kai, 2011. "Electoral accountability, fiscal decentralization and service delivery in Indonesia," Policy Research Working Paper Series 5614, The World Bank.
    5. Torsten Persson & Guido Tabellini, 2009. "Democratic Capital: The Nexus of Political and Economic Change," American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 1(2), pages 88-126, July.
    6. Dorsch, Michael T. & Maarek, Paul, 2020. "Economic downturns, inequality, and democratic improvements," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 62(C).
    7. Rabah Arezki & Markus Brückner, 2011. "Food Prices and Political Instability," CESifo Working Paper Series 3544, CESifo.
    8. Andrea Asoni, 2008. "Protection Of Property Rights And Growth As Political Equilibria," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 22(5), pages 953-987, December.
    9. Gregory, Paul R. & Schröder, Philipp J.H. & Sonin, Konstantin, 2011. "Rational dictators and the killing of innocents: Data from Stalin's archives," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 39(1), pages 34-42, March.
    10. Guriev, Sergei & Treisman, Daniel, 2020. "A theory of informational autocracy," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 186(C).
    11. Michael K Miller, 2013. "Electoral authoritarianism and democracy: A formal model of regime transitions," Journal of Theoretical Politics, , vol. 25(2), pages 153-181, April.
    12. Therese E. Zogo & Christophe M. Mbassi & Simplice A. Asongu, 2024. "Coup d’état and access to electricity in sub-Saharan Africa," Working Papers of the African Governance and Development Institute. 24/019, African Governance and Development Institute..
    13. Francesc Amat & Pablo Beramendi & Miriam Hortas-Rico & Vicente Rios, 2020. "How inequality shapes political participation: The role of spatial patterns of political competition," Working Papers. Collection B: Regional and sectoral economics 2002, Universidade de Vigo, GEN - Governance and Economics research Network.
    14. Marco Manacorda & Andrea Tesei, 2020. "Liberation Technology: Mobile Phones and Political Mobilization in Africa," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 88(2), pages 533-567, March.
    15. Londregan, John & Vindigni, Andrea, 2006. "Voting as a Credible Threat," Papers 10-04-2006, Princeton University, Research Program in Political Economy.
    16. Snigdha Dewal & Jack A. Goldstone & Michael Volpe, 2013. "Forecasting Stability or Retreat in Emerging Democratic Regimes," Politics and Governance, Cogitatio Press, vol. 1(1), pages 32-47.
    17. Pierre Courtois & Rabia Nessah & Tarik Tazdaït, 2024. "Revolutions and rational choice: A critical discussion," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 200(3), pages 497-529, September.
    18. Åsa Johansson, 2016. "Public Finance, Economic Growth and Inequality: A Survey of the Evidence," OECD Economics Department Working Papers 1346, OECD Publishing.
    19. Azam, Jean-Paul, 2008. "Macroeconomic Agenda for Fiscal Policy and Aid Effectiveness in Post-Conflict Countries," IDEI Working Papers 539, Institut d'Économie Industrielle (IDEI), Toulouse.
    20. Taiji Furusawa & Hideo Konishi & Duong Lam Anh Tran, 2020. "International Trade and Income Inequality," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 122(3), pages 993-1026, July.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:taf:rjapxx:v:21:y:2016:i:4:p:467-488. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/rjap .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.