O Fiona Yap
Biographic Data
| ID | 4371084 |
|---|---|
| NAME | O Fiona Yap |
| GIVEN NAMES | O Fiona |
| FAMILY NAME | Yap |
| SIGNATURE | YAP O F |
| AFFILIATIONS | Australian National University |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-1287-3768 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 29 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 79 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 29 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1993 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2021 |
| H-INDEX | 5 |
Local government performance and democratic consolidation: Explaining ordinance proposal in Busan Metropolitan Council
This article assesses the role of local councils as a conduit for democratic consolidation through the examination of the legislative performance of the members of a South Korean metropolitan city council. We collected data on ordinance proposals in Busan Metropolitan Council from 2006 to 2018 (the 5th to 7th Councils) and analysed, first, the effects of individual attributes of local council members on legislative performance through negative bi…
Local politics for democratic quality and depth: Lessons from South Korea
A vast literature debates the causes, workings and consequences of democracy: a Google Scholar search returns some 3.6 million studies on the subject; by way of contrast, studies on authoritarianism or populism barely reach 350,000. Importantly, the expansive interest in democracy is not merely academic. Instead, studies on democracy are irrefutably empirically driven. Earlier work on the causes and effects of democracy—such as when, why and how …
A Democratization Model for East and Southeast Asia
We adopt a game theory approach that considers democratization as the result of strategic interactions between government and nongovernment actors in East and Southeast Asia, and test the implications systematically with data from South Korea, Thailand, Taiwan, the Philippines, and Indonesia. This makes three contributions to scholarship. First, the synergy of a game theory framework based on area studies information draws attention to the condit…
The Development Impacts of Covid-19 at Home and Abroad: Politics and Implications of Government Action
A New Normal or Business-as-Usual? Lessons for Covid-19 from Financial Crises in East and Southeast Asia
Challenging the East Asian Development Model: Evidence from South Korea
How political trust matters in emergent democracies: Evidence from East and Southeast Asia
How does political trust affect the competing pressures of policy versus political performance in emergent democracies? Studies suggest that political trust buffers against these pressures, but empirical evidence is lacking in regard to if or how, given the focus in the literature on mature democracies where democratic institutions and practices are unlikely to be upended by either policy or political underperformance. However, in emergent democr…
Politics or the economy? Weak economic performance and political support in East and Southeast Asia
What are the effects of weak economic performance in East and Southeast Asia? In particular, does weak performance lead to citizens’ dissatisfaction and, correspondingly, increase preference for stronger governments who may achieve economic targets more quickly? Recent elections in less-democratic nations and emergent democracies of East and Southeast Asia suggest growing support for political parties carries over from previous authorities. And, …
When Do Citizens Take Costly Action Against Government Corruption? Evidence From Experiments in Australia, Singapore, and the United States
When do citizens take costly collective action against government corruption? When citizens act in concert, their demands are credible and not easily discounted by governments, which should be more likely to respond. In this study, we use the stag-hunt game, supplemented by Granovetter's threshold model of collective action, to investigate the conditions under which citizens coordinate to collectively act against government corruption. We use sur…
When Do Citizens Take Costly Action Against Government Corruption? Evidence From Experiments in Australia, Singapore, and the United States–addendum
An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content
South Korea in 2015
The year 2015 featured real and metaphorical battles in South Korea: face-offs between the executive and the legislature saw President Park Geun-hye duel with the non-Park faction in the ruling Saenuri Party and fend off the opposition, whose alliance struggled with infighting and subsequent fractures. The government waged war against a health epidemic and exchanged artillery fire with North Korea at the Demilitarized Zone. The by-elections in Ap…
Military Support of Citizens' Challenge in the Asian Industrialized Countries
When do militaries in the newly industrialized countries of East and Southeast Asia support their governments, when do they support citizens' challenge of government, and when do they launch coups? We propose and test a theory of military behavior using data from across East and Southeast Asia between the 1970s and 2008. The results corroborate the model's predictions to make four contributions: First, the model provides a framework of military b…
South Korea in 2014
The Sewol ferry tragedy revealed weaknesses in South Korea’s politics, economy, and society that had been sidestepped during economic development and political transition. The split in local elections, the Saenuri Party’s sweep in by-elections, and the installation of critics of President Park as leaders of the ruling party all underscore the public’s rejection of political stonewalling or politicking-as-usual
Strategic Party Choices in Emergent Democracies: Taiwan's 2008 Legislative Election
Parties instrumentally shape or realign electoral support in competitive elections to underpin a vigorous party system. Assessing whether parties are strategic versus ignorant, then, is essential to the viability of the parties and particularly relevant in emergent democracies to eliminate unfounded biases against ignorant parties. The dramatic, lopsided results of Taiwan's 2008 legislative elections following electoral reform are particular usef…
East is East, and West is West’? Reimagining Asian Exceptionalism and the Study of Democratization
The rich country-specific inquiries of Asian studies built a large stock of information that magnifies the exceptionalism of Asia’s experiences (see also Acharya 2001). This contrasts against systematic treatments of the large- and medium-N varieties associated with disciplinary emphasis on theory-building and empirical predictions in comparative studies. Of course, theory-building is not fundamentally at odds with information-gathering and vice …
Economic Performance and Democratic Support in Asia’s Emergent Democracies
How does economic performance affect support for democracy in emergent democracies? Government approval studies do not directly evaluate this. Recent literature suggests using separate assessments: Citizens in emergent democracies—through political trust—distinguish between government approval and democratic support. This article directly assesses the question for Asia’s democratizing nations of Taiwan, Thailand, South Korea, and the Philippines.…
When do Citizens Demand Punishment of Corruption
Under what conditions do citizens demand punishment of corrupt government officials or actions? Citizens' demands complement and motivate government actions. Studies suggest, however, that citizens' demands are weak and not credible. This paper considers
A Strategic Model of Economic Performance and Democratization in South Korea and Taiwan
A debate, fanned by the experiences of South Korea and Taiwan, persists over how economic growth leads to democratization. This article provides a theoretical model showing that economic downturns lead to democratization and evaluates the conclusion systematically with data from South Korea and Taiwan. The model and results corroborate the hypothesis that economic downturns motivate government and non-government actors to pursue political reforms…
Informal accountability, credible actions, and democratization in Taiwan
Strategic Government Spending in South Korea and Taiwan: Lessons for Emergent Democracies
Objectives. How is government spending used strategically in South Korea and Taiwan? As nations generally considered to have weathered democratization, government allocations in South Korea and Taiwan are instructive on how spending may be used strategically without undermining democratization. Methods. The similar sociocultural, historical, political, and economic experiences of the two nations underlie a most-similar-systems approach to study h…
Executive–Legislature Divide and Party Volatility in Emergent Democracies: Lessons for Democratic Performance from Taiwan
Are new democracies with divided government and volatile parties politically ill fated? The literature suggests so, but cases of emergent democracies such as Taiwan and Brazil that face both conditions defy the prediction. This paper explains why: party volatility follows from pursuing distinct executive and legislature agendas under divided government; the political ambition that underlies these conditions sustains democratic and even political …
Pathologies or Progress? Evaluating the effects of Divided Government and Party Volatility
A vast body of literature emphasizes that successful political development relies on stable and united political parties that underpin clear and responsive policymaking. By this perspective, divided government and party volatility represent pathologies that imperil political accountability and development. Indeed, studies contend that divided government – where different parties control the executive and legislative branches of government – lead …
Agenda Control, Intraparty Conflict, and Government Spending in Asia: Evidence from South Korea and Taiwan
In nations where the executive has budgetary control, how are spending decisions and allocations affected? Is intraparty conflict relevant? This article sets out to show that institutional rules and leadership roles affect budgetary outcomes. It makes the following argument: if intraparty conflict exists in a one-party dominant or majority-party system, the executive reduces spending to punish the party in the legislature; if no intraparty confli…
Citizen Power, Politics, and the "Asian Miracle": Reassessing the Dynamics
Departing from characterizations of Asian governments as benevolent overlords and Asian citizens as politically naive and/or docile, Fiona Yap explores the dynamic interactions between state and citizenry in the arena of economic policies. Yap focuses on the cases of Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea, and Taiwan to show that, with the strategic use of activities ranging from labor unrest to investment in production, citizens can push a government …
Bargaining in Less-Democratic Newly Industrialized Countries: Model and Evidence from South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, and Malaysia
Do governments in less-democratic newly industrialized countries (NICs) bargain with their citizens? In this article we develop a game-theoretic model to show that the government may not be able to avoid bargaining in open economies such as the Asian NICs when economic conditions are less than optimal. The reason is that, in the absence of government bargaining, citizens acting rationally and strategically choose to withdraw resources such as lab…
How political trust matters in emergent democracies: Evidence from East and Southeast Asia
How does political trust affect the competing pressures of policy versus political performance in emergent democracies? Studies suggest that political trust buffers against these pressures, but empirical evidence is lacking in regard to if or how, given the focus in the literature on mature democracies where democratic institutions and practices are unlikely to be upended by either policy or political underperformance. However, in emergent democr…
Economic Performance and Democratic Support in Asia’s Emergent Democracies
How does economic performance affect support for democracy in emergent democracies? Government approval studies do not directly evaluate this. Recent literature suggests using separate assessments: Citizens in emergent democracies—through political trust—distinguish between government approval and democratic support. This article directly assesses the question for Asia’s democratizing nations of Taiwan, Thailand, South Korea, and the Philippines.…
A Strategic Model of Economic Performance and Democratization in South Korea and Taiwan
A debate, fanned by the experiences of South Korea and Taiwan, persists over how economic growth leads to democratization. This article provides a theoretical model showing that economic downturns lead to democratization and evaluates the conclusion systematically with data from South Korea and Taiwan. The model and results corroborate the hypothesis that economic downturns motivate government and non-government actors to pursue political reforms…
The Gender Factor in Soviet Mass Politics: Survey Evidence from Greater Moscow
Based on a representative sample of 504 respondents from the Moscow oblast of the Soviet Union, gender differences in both political and non- political variables (which may serve to explain the connection between gender and the political) were investigated. With controls for age, edu cation, income and membership in the Communist party, women were found to be more favorable to the Communist party, less in favor of radical change, less politically…
Non-Electoral Responsiveness Mechanisms: Evidence from the Asian Less Democratic Newly Industrializing Countries
Does the lack of competitive elections in the less democratic newly industrialized or industrializing countries (NICs) mean that their governments are unconstrained by their citizens' preferences for economic performance? In this article, I show how non-electoral mechanisms in the less democratic NICs of South Korea, Singapore and Malaysia constrain their governments. Governments pay attention to the effects of policies on economic performance be…
A New Normal or Business-as-Usual? Lessons for Covid-19 from Financial Crises in East and Southeast Asia
When do Citizens Demand Punishment of Corruption
Under what conditions do citizens demand punishment of corrupt government officials or actions? Citizens' demands complement and motivate government actions. Studies suggest, however, that citizens' demands are weak and not credible. This paper considers
The Development Impacts of Covid-19 at Home and Abroad: Politics and Implications of Government Action
Challenging the East Asian Development Model: Evidence from South Korea
Politics or the economy? Weak economic performance and political support in East and Southeast Asia
What are the effects of weak economic performance in East and Southeast Asia? In particular, does weak performance lead to citizens’ dissatisfaction and, correspondingly, increase preference for stronger governments who may achieve economic targets more quickly? Recent elections in less-democratic nations and emergent democracies of East and Southeast Asia suggest growing support for political parties carries over from previous authorities. And, …
When Do Citizens Take Costly Action Against Government Corruption? Evidence From Experiments in Australia, Singapore, and the United States
When do citizens take costly collective action against government corruption? When citizens act in concert, their demands are credible and not easily discounted by governments, which should be more likely to respond. In this study, we use the stag-hunt game, supplemented by Granovetter's threshold model of collective action, to investigate the conditions under which citizens coordinate to collectively act against government corruption. We use sur…
South Korea in 2014
The Sewol ferry tragedy revealed weaknesses in South Korea’s politics, economy, and society that had been sidestepped during economic development and political transition. The split in local elections, the Saenuri Party’s sweep in by-elections, and the installation of critics of President Park as leaders of the ruling party all underscore the public’s rejection of political stonewalling or politicking-as-usual
Government’s credible commitment in economic policy-making: Evidence from Singapore
Local government performance and democratic consolidation: Explaining ordinance proposal in Busan Metropolitan Council
This article assesses the role of local councils as a conduit for democratic consolidation through the examination of the legislative performance of the members of a South Korean metropolitan city council. We collected data on ordinance proposals in Busan Metropolitan Council from 2006 to 2018 (the 5th to 7th Councils) and analysed, first, the effects of individual attributes of local council members on legislative performance through negative bi…
South Korea in 2015
The year 2015 featured real and metaphorical battles in South Korea: face-offs between the executive and the legislature saw President Park Geun-hye duel with the non-Park faction in the ruling Saenuri Party and fend off the opposition, whose alliance struggled with infighting and subsequent fractures. The government waged war against a health epidemic and exchanged artillery fire with North Korea at the Demilitarized Zone. The by-elections in Ap…
Military Support of Citizens' Challenge in the Asian Industrialized Countries
When do militaries in the newly industrialized countries of East and Southeast Asia support their governments, when do they support citizens' challenge of government, and when do they launch coups? We propose and test a theory of military behavior using data from across East and Southeast Asia between the 1970s and 2008. The results corroborate the model's predictions to make four contributions: First, the model provides a framework of military b…
East is East, and West is West’? Reimagining Asian Exceptionalism and the Study of Democratization
The rich country-specific inquiries of Asian studies built a large stock of information that magnifies the exceptionalism of Asia’s experiences (see also Acharya 2001). This contrasts against systematic treatments of the large- and medium-N varieties associated with disciplinary emphasis on theory-building and empirical predictions in comparative studies. Of course, theory-building is not fundamentally at odds with information-gathering and vice …
Informal accountability, credible actions, and democratization in Taiwan
Agenda Control, Intraparty Conflict, and Government Spending in Asia: Evidence from South Korea and Taiwan
In nations where the executive has budgetary control, how are spending decisions and allocations affected? Is intraparty conflict relevant? This article sets out to show that institutional rules and leadership roles affect budgetary outcomes. It makes the following argument: if intraparty conflict exists in a one-party dominant or majority-party system, the executive reduces spending to punish the party in the legislature; if no intraparty confli…
The Gender Factor in Soviet Mass Politics: Survey Evidence from Greater Moscow
Based on a representative sample of 504 respondents from the Moscow oblast of the Soviet Union, gender differences in both political and non- political variables (which may serve to explain the connection between gender and the political) were investigated. With controls for age, edu cation, income and membership in the Communist party, women were found to be more favorable to the Communist party, less in favor of radical change, less politically…
Government’s credible commitment in economic policy-making: Evidence from Singapore
Non-Electoral Responsiveness Mechanisms: Evidence from the Asian Less Democratic Newly Industrializing Countries
Does the lack of competitive elections in the less democratic newly industrialized or industrializing countries (NICs) mean that their governments are unconstrained by their citizens' preferences for economic performance? In this article, I show how non-electoral mechanisms in the less democratic NICs of South Korea, Singapore and Malaysia constrain their governments. Governments pay attention to the effects of policies on economic performance be…
Theory and Testing of Governments' Credible Apologies: A Reply to Lowry' ‘Comment on Yap's “Non-Electoral Responsiveness Mechanisms”’
I appreciate the work that Professor Lowry has put into the evaluation of the credible apologies argument presented in my article, ‘Non-Electoral Responsiveness Mechanisms’. Lowry states that I assume ‘a causal arrow running from poor economic performance to credible apologies’. I am obliged to point out that this is inaccurate – I make no such assumption. What does cause the government's credible apologies? It is the need for the economic resour…
Citizen Power, Politics, and the "Asian Miracle": Reassessing the Dynamics
Departing from characterizations of Asian governments as benevolent overlords and Asian citizens as politically naive and/or docile, Fiona Yap explores the dynamic interactions between state and citizenry in the arena of economic policies. Yap focuses on the cases of Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea, and Taiwan to show that, with the strategic use of activities ranging from labor unrest to investment in production, citizens can push a government …
Bargaining in Less-Democratic Newly Industrialized Countries: Model and Evidence from South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, and Malaysia
Do governments in less-democratic newly industrialized countries (NICs) bargain with their citizens? In this article we develop a game-theoretic model to show that the government may not be able to avoid bargaining in open economies such as the Asian NICs when economic conditions are less than optimal. The reason is that, in the absence of government bargaining, citizens acting rationally and strategically choose to withdraw resources such as lab…
Agenda Control, Intraparty Conflict, and Government Spending in Asia: Evidence from South Korea and Taiwan
In nations where the executive has budgetary control, how are spending decisions and allocations affected? Is intraparty conflict relevant? This article sets out to show that institutional rules and leadership roles affect budgetary outcomes. It makes the following argument: if intraparty conflict exists in a one-party dominant or majority-party system, the executive reduces spending to punish the party in the legislature; if no intraparty confli…
Executive–Legislature Divide and Party Volatility in Emergent Democracies: Lessons for Democratic Performance from Taiwan
Are new democracies with divided government and volatile parties politically ill fated? The literature suggests so, but cases of emergent democracies such as Taiwan and Brazil that face both conditions defy the prediction. This paper explains why: party volatility follows from pursuing distinct executive and legislature agendas under divided government; the political ambition that underlies these conditions sustains democratic and even political …
Pathologies or Progress? Evaluating the effects of Divided Government and Party Volatility
A vast body of literature emphasizes that successful political development relies on stable and united political parties that underpin clear and responsive policymaking. By this perspective, divided government and party volatility represent pathologies that imperil political accountability and development. Indeed, studies contend that divided government – where different parties control the executive and legislative branches of government – lead …
Informal accountability, credible actions, and democratization in Taiwan
Strategic Government Spending in South Korea and Taiwan: Lessons for Emergent Democracies
Objectives. How is government spending used strategically in South Korea and Taiwan? As nations generally considered to have weathered democratization, government allocations in South Korea and Taiwan are instructive on how spending may be used strategically without undermining democratization. Methods. The similar sociocultural, historical, political, and economic experiences of the two nations underlie a most-similar-systems approach to study h…
A Strategic Model of Economic Performance and Democratization in South Korea and Taiwan
A debate, fanned by the experiences of South Korea and Taiwan, persists over how economic growth leads to democratization. This article provides a theoretical model showing that economic downturns lead to democratization and evaluates the conclusion systematically with data from South Korea and Taiwan. The model and results corroborate the hypothesis that economic downturns motivate government and non-government actors to pursue political reforms…
Economic Performance and Democratic Support in Asia’s Emergent Democracies
How does economic performance affect support for democracy in emergent democracies? Government approval studies do not directly evaluate this. Recent literature suggests using separate assessments: Citizens in emergent democracies—through political trust—distinguish between government approval and democratic support. This article directly assesses the question for Asia’s democratizing nations of Taiwan, Thailand, South Korea, and the Philippines.…
When do Citizens Demand Punishment of Corruption
Under what conditions do citizens demand punishment of corrupt government officials or actions? Citizens' demands complement and motivate government actions. Studies suggest, however, that citizens' demands are weak and not credible. This paper considers
Military Support of Citizens' Challenge in the Asian Industrialized Countries
When do militaries in the newly industrialized countries of East and Southeast Asia support their governments, when do they support citizens' challenge of government, and when do they launch coups? We propose and test a theory of military behavior using data from across East and Southeast Asia between the 1970s and 2008. The results corroborate the model's predictions to make four contributions: First, the model provides a framework of military b…
South Korea in 2014
The Sewol ferry tragedy revealed weaknesses in South Korea’s politics, economy, and society that had been sidestepped during economic development and political transition. The split in local elections, the Saenuri Party’s sweep in by-elections, and the installation of critics of President Park as leaders of the ruling party all underscore the public’s rejection of political stonewalling or politicking-as-usual
Strategic Party Choices in Emergent Democracies: Taiwan's 2008 Legislative Election
Parties instrumentally shape or realign electoral support in competitive elections to underpin a vigorous party system. Assessing whether parties are strategic versus ignorant, then, is essential to the viability of the parties and particularly relevant in emergent democracies to eliminate unfounded biases against ignorant parties. The dramatic, lopsided results of Taiwan's 2008 legislative elections following electoral reform are particular usef…
East is East, and West is West’? Reimagining Asian Exceptionalism and the Study of Democratization
The rich country-specific inquiries of Asian studies built a large stock of information that magnifies the exceptionalism of Asia’s experiences (see also Acharya 2001). This contrasts against systematic treatments of the large- and medium-N varieties associated with disciplinary emphasis on theory-building and empirical predictions in comparative studies. Of course, theory-building is not fundamentally at odds with information-gathering and vice …
South Korea in 2015
The year 2015 featured real and metaphorical battles in South Korea: face-offs between the executive and the legislature saw President Park Geun-hye duel with the non-Park faction in the ruling Saenuri Party and fend off the opposition, whose alliance struggled with infighting and subsequent fractures. The government waged war against a health epidemic and exchanged artillery fire with North Korea at the Demilitarized Zone. The by-elections in Ap…
When Do Citizens Take Costly Action Against Government Corruption? Evidence From Experiments in Australia, Singapore, and the United States
When do citizens take costly collective action against government corruption? When citizens act in concert, their demands are credible and not easily discounted by governments, which should be more likely to respond. In this study, we use the stag-hunt game, supplemented by Granovetter's threshold model of collective action, to investigate the conditions under which citizens coordinate to collectively act against government corruption. We use sur…
When Do Citizens Take Costly Action Against Government Corruption? Evidence From Experiments in Australia, Singapore, and the United States–addendum
An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content
Politics or the economy? Weak economic performance and political support in East and Southeast Asia
What are the effects of weak economic performance in East and Southeast Asia? In particular, does weak performance lead to citizens’ dissatisfaction and, correspondingly, increase preference for stronger governments who may achieve economic targets more quickly? Recent elections in less-democratic nations and emergent democracies of East and Southeast Asia suggest growing support for political parties carries over from previous authorities. And, …
Challenging the East Asian Development Model: Evidence from South Korea
How political trust matters in emergent democracies: Evidence from East and Southeast Asia
How does political trust affect the competing pressures of policy versus political performance in emergent democracies? Studies suggest that political trust buffers against these pressures, but empirical evidence is lacking in regard to if or how, given the focus in the literature on mature democracies where democratic institutions and practices are unlikely to be upended by either policy or political underperformance. However, in emergent democr…
The Development Impacts of Covid-19 at Home and Abroad: Politics and Implications of Government Action
Political science (28 works) · Economics (25 works) · Politics (25 works) · Law (21 works) · Law (19 works) · Political economy (19 works) · Democracy (18 works) · Government (linguistics (18 works) · Electoral Systems and Political Participation (13 works) · Development economics (11 works)