Title: Public Opinion Towards Democratic Reforms and Compromise in a New Democracy
Time: November 20 (Thur), 12:00-13:00
Venue: TSE Common Area
Speaker: Elvin ONG (Assistant Professor, Department of Political Science, National University of Singapore)
Short Bio:
Elvin ONG is Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science at the National University of Singapore (NUS). His primary research interest is in comparative democratisation in Northeast and Southeast Asia, with a specific focus on the role of opposition parties. His research has been published in disciplinary journals such as the American Journal of Political Science, Party Politics, Democratization, alongside regionally focused journals such as the Pacific Affairs, Journal of East Asian Studies, and Contemporary Southeast Asia. His book, Opposing Power: Building Opposition Alliances in Electoral Autocracies, was published by the University of Michigan Press in 2022. Dr Ong received his PhD in Political Science from Emory University. Outside of NUS, he is the Chair of the Association for Asian Studies, Malaysia, Singapore, and Brunei (MSB) Studies Group.
Lecture Abstract:
Consolidating democracy requires democratic reforms to expand civil liberties, enhance transparency, and improve accountability. Political elites complicate the reform process by influencing public opinion. To understand how the framing of democratic reforms affects public opinion, we conducted a survey experiment in Malaysia, a new democracy since 2018. We also provide observational evidence of attitudes toward compromise solutions that balance competing group interests. We report three key findings. First, messages that emphasize improvements to the country’s democratic institutions do not increase support for reforms. Second, ethnic appeals that frame reforms as threatening the dominant ethnic group’s status decrease support among its members. Third, proposed compromise solutions can increase support for democratic reforms, but only for reforms lacking broad-based support. Our results underscore the deep challenges of democratic consolidation in new democracies, and suggest how the nuanced framing of reforms can potentially overcome these obstacles.