In Asia: Weekly Insight and Features from Asia

Indonesia is a successful but flawed democracy: while the electoral process has worked well, the quality of democratic governance is less encouraging. Missing from the equation between elections and democracy is political accountability. Parties’ obsession with coalition building as a route to political power…

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Women make up more than half of the population in Asia, and the UN estimates that the Asia-Pacific economy would earn an additional $89 billion annually if women were able to achieve their full economic potential in these countries. To examine this disparity, The Asia Foundation, in partnership with the U.S. Department of State…

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Despite the important role played by election commissions globally, there are presently no established baseline standards, or even studies clearly identifying better practices on the dissemination of information by these bodies. A new report, prepared by the Centre for Law and Democracy (CLD)…

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On the heels of the Chicago NATO summit which set the stage for the departure of NATO troops from Afghanistan and the transition of security to Afghan forces, questions now turn to the future of institution building, development, and the nation’s ability to provide security to its citizens post-2014.

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The Asia Foundation just released “Formal and Informal Governance in Afghanistan,” the first of series of analytical occasional papers on the public-opinion survey, Afghanistan in 2011: A Survey of the Afghan People. Authored by Robert D. Lamb…

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After 10 years of independence and as a nascent democracy, Timor-Leste still faces the dual challenge of building formal institutions from the ground up while ensuring that traditional, local institutions are integrated into the state. In a country where the overwhelming majority of governance functions that citizens rely on…

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In Sri Lanka’s war-torn North, business owners struggle to rebuild and revive their enterprises after a decades-long civil war once brought these local economies to a halt. Now, signs of economic recovery are emerging. Until now, however, insight from business owners themselves on the state of their business and economic environments…

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“The choice of an electoral system must not be taken lightly. … Far too often in transitional or developing settings, the choice of a system is the work of a lamentably small group of people who then enshrine their decision in a constitution adopted after a sketchy public debate held in a context where few have a full grasp of the long-term significance of electoral-system…

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For poor and rural Nepalis, the formal judicial system is of little value and largely inaccessible. With a diverse ethnic and linguistic population, Nepal’s different regions and groups have had their own unique and indigenously evolved customs for resolving disputes.

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In a just-released paper, The Asia Foundation’s director for Elections and Political Processes, Tim Meisburger, examines the changing role of politics in development to find more effective approaches to supporting the development of democratic political parties…

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