This issue includes a collection of four articles.
Tseng, Duong, and Chen analyze the role of the candidates’ public image as a substitute for party identification in the elections in Taiwan. They consider five dimensions to be relevant: family background, personal traits, party identification, electoral strategies, and media relations. Using a set of 23 indicators covering the five dimensions, collected from experts (legislators and aides) the authors propose an evaluation framework. Using Taiwan as a case study, the paper concludes that both legislators and their staff agree the key criteria in evaluating a candidate’s image are political experience and the way they are portrayed by the media.
In the second paper, Muneer and Aryal document the main factors explaining India’s democratic backsliding under the rule of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). They provide evidence showing that the BJP has manipulated the institutional framework of the Indian state to serve partisan interests: the appointment of ideologically aligned judges to the judiciary, the suppression of dissent through media control and censorship, and the centralization of authority to reshape state institutions. Institutional instrumentalization, combined with increasing control over the civil society and religious nationalism are the main elements damaging India’s democracy.
Han’s paper analyzes the various changes in the public service quota system in Bangladesh and how these are linked to grassroots corruption and governance quality. His research indicates that corruption among local officials undermines public resource allocation, exacerbates social inequality, and widens the wealth gap. Additionally, it significantly hampers policy implementation, eroding public trust in the government and fueling social discontent and instability.
In the last paper in this issue, Küçük and Arslan show how neoliberalism, through its focus on free markets, deregulation, privatization and reduced state intervention, influenced Türkiye’s economic, political and social landscape. Neoliberal policies led to restructuring and downsizing government, adopting market approaches to services. This eroded welfare, increased inequality, and diminished the state’s role in rights. Privatizing state enterprises and opening services to private sectors further entrenched neoliberalism, which resulted in precarious employment, income disparities and reduced bargaining power.
