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This volume examines the complex interplay of geopolitics, electoral politics, and representative governance across South, Southeast, West, and Central Asia through an intersectional lens. Analyzing electoral developments in Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Indonesia, Israel, Malaysia, Maldives, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Turkey, and Uzbekistan, it explores diverse political systems ranging from consolidated democracies to hybrid regimes and entrenched authoritarian states. With many of these countries having held national elections in 2024, the volume offers timely insights into how majoritarian, proportional and hybrid electoral systems mediate governance, legitimacy and citizen participation. It interrogates the role of elections in enabling democratic representation while exposing how identity politics, majoritarianism, and systemic exclusion continue to shape outcomes. Combining macro and micro perspectives, the volume provides grounded, comparative analyses of Asia s political trajectories and will be of interest to scholars and students of political science, international relations, area studies, and electoral politics.
List of contents
Chapter 1: Elections, Democracy, and Geopolitics: The Enduring Dilemmas in Pakistan.- Chapter 2: From Guided to Patronage to Clientele to Vigilante Democracy: Cross-Currents of Islamization, Dynasticism, and Hope in Contemporary Indonesia.- Chapter 3: The Fall of Democracy: Subversion of the Electoral Process and the Rise of the Military in Myanmar: Retrospecting the legacy of U Nu and Ne Win.- Chapter 4: Decoding democracy and electoral politics in India: Between empowerment, entitlement and the politics of populism.- Chapter 5: Democracy in Malaysia: Electoral Politics in a Polarising State.- Chapter 6: Electoral Dynamics in Bangladesh: From Independence to Democratic Chaos (1971 2024).- Chapter 7: Electoral politics in the Maldives amid shifting Asian geopolitics.- Chapter 8: Nepal s Democratic Transition: Electoral Reforms, Majoritarianism and Geopolitics.- Chapter 9: Elections in Sri Lanka: Identity, Systems, and Geopolitics.- Chapter 10: Elections in Uzbekistan: Steady Transformation in Slow Motion.- Chapter 11: Dance of democracy in the Himalayan kingdom The 2024 elections in Bhutan.- Chapter 12: Elections as anchor for survival of Taiwanese Power elite.- Chapter 13: Symbolism, Rhetoric, and Elections: Decoding the Turkish Political Landscape.- Chapter 14: Deconstructing Electoral Democracy: Israel as a Case Study.
About the author
Jhumpa Mukherjee (M. A (Gold Medalist), and Ph. D) is Associate Professor and Head of the Postgraduate and Research Department of Political Science at St. Xavier’s College, Kolkata.
Priya Singh is the Associate Director and Programme Coordinator at Asia in Global Affairs (AGA), Kolkata. She has been a Fellow at the Maulana Abul Kalam Azad Institute of Asian Studies, Kolkata, and a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Asian Institute of Technology (AIT), Bangkok.
Anita Sengupta is currently Director, Asia in Global Affairs, Kolkata. She has been Fellow, Maulana Abul Kalam Azad Institute of Asian Studies, Kolkata, Senior Fellow, Indian Council of Social Science Research, New Delhi and Director, Calcutta Research Group, Kolkata.
Summary
This volume examines the complex interplay of geopolitics, electoral politics, and representative governance across South, Southeast, West, and Central Asia through an intersectional lens. Analyzing electoral developments in Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Indonesia, Israel, Malaysia, Maldives, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Turkey, and Uzbekistan, it explores diverse political systems ranging from consolidated democracies to hybrid regimes and entrenched authoritarian states. With many of these countries having held national elections in 2024, the volume offers timely insights into how majoritarian, proportional and hybrid electoral systems mediate governance, legitimacy and citizen participation. It interrogates the role of elections in enabling democratic representation while exposing how identity politics, majoritarianism, and systemic exclusion continue to shape outcomes. Combining macro and micro perspectives, the volume provides grounded, comparative analyses of Asia’s political trajectories and will be of interest to scholars and students of political science, international relations, area studies, and electoral politics.
