Politics in Pacific Asia

Lively, accessible and stimulating... it sets a new benchmark for textbook writing. If there is a prize for the best textbook on Asian politics, one may not need to look beyond this volume for a winner.' - Political Science 'A very well organized and comprehensive guide to one of the world's most complex and important regions' - Mark Beeson, Murdoch University, Australia

This lively and accessible text provides a uniquely broad-ranging and thematic introduction to the politics of an increasingly significant and dynamic region of the contemporary world.This lively and accessible new edition provides a uniquely broad-ranging introduction to the governance and politics of Pacific Asia. Thematically structured around the key institutions and issues, it is genuinely comparative in its approach to the whole region. A range of representative countries (China, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam and the Philippines) are used as key case examples throughout and each of them is subject to a detailed full-page country profile. This diverse region is a fascinating area for study. Politics in Pacific Asia provides a framework to form a coherent understanding of the region's politics; it balances persistent patterns with the latest developments and general characteristics with the differing cultures, histories and institutions of individual countries.