After Victory: Governance Outcomes, Political Stability, and Institutional Reform

The project investigates the varying trajectories of governance, political stability, and institutional reform in six countries – South Korea, Japan, Taiwan, Philippines, Malaysia, and Myanmar – after opposition parties or alliances win power against a long dominant incumbent. Specifically, it seeks to uncover the factors that generate positive outcomes for governance, political stability, and institutional reforms after an opposition wins, as compared to negative outcomes.

Insights from the research will contribute to existing scholarship in three significant ways. First, it shifts the existing literature’s overwhelming focus from the dominant autocratic incumbents to the rarely studied opposition parties, particularly in East and Southeast Asia where there has been little to no cross-country comparative research on opposition parties. Second, it motivates scholars to study what happens after regime turnovers rather than what happens before. Lastly, it will inject new vigour and motivation into a strand of literature on ‘democratic consolidation’ that was popular in the 1980s and 1990s by broadening the scope of enquiry to governance, stability, and institutional reform developments. This can in turn encourage further research on long-term political consequences in other fields such as public policy, public affairs, and international relations.