Designing parties out of parliaments : non-partisan chambers in Indonesia, the Philippines and Thailand

Abstract

Within the space of a few years, Indonesia, Thailand and the Philippines implemented a design for parliamentary representation that proscribed the established political parties from a parliamentary chamber or part thereof. The need to design non-partisan parts of parliament to undertake representation and deliberation responsibilities is an indirect but serious criticism of political parties. The thesis tracks the intentions behind the non-partisan designs and plots the outcomes of the designs. It also investigates the conceptual architecture underpinning the non-partisan designs identifying corporatism as one (discredited) alternative and "championship" (drawing from the Confucian concept of junzi or exemplary persons) as another. While there is a yearning for exemplary people as representatives, the designers have struggled to find a successful means of having these champions elected to office. The thesis concludes that non-partisan chambers are not viable because political parties will either infiltrate or isolate them. The three case studies demonstrate the limits of what can be achieved by institutional design. Heroic designs responding to problems also of heroic dimensions need to be tackled through an array of devices including civic education and economic reform to complement the design of governance structures. In relation to design issues, the lessons learned are the need to entrust the institutional design negotiation process to an independent body that includes representatives of affected interests to allow them to buy into the resulting compromises; the need to focus on significant and salient features that are capable of being successfully shaped by the structures under design; and the need to ratify the process by a form of public acclamation.