[TimorLesteStudies] New Article: Is Small Beautiful? Multiparty Politics and Democratic Consolidation in Timor-Leste.

[Michael Leach]

Dennis Shoesmith. 2012. Is Small Beautiful? MultipartyPolitics and Democratic Consolidation in Timor-Leste. Asian Politics & Policy 4(1): 33-51.
Drawing on comparisons of the experience of multipartypolitics in postcolonial African states and in Papua New Guinea, this articleconsiders whether the party and electoral systems in Timor-Leste retard atransition to a consolidated democratic polity. Like FRELIMO in Mozambique, theindependence party, FRETILIN, committed to a one-party regime until bothparties adopted multiparty politics from the late 1980s. Since independence,Timor-Leste has been relatively successful in establishing a competitive partysystem. This article argues, however, that the proliferation of small partiesand the necessity to negotiate unstable coalition governments retard the processof democratic consolidation in Timor-Leste, and the party system undermineseffective state governance and restricts rather than broadens democraticrepresentation. A weak multiparty system has encouraged corruption and poorgovernance in Papua New Guinea, and multiparty politics threaten similaroutcomes in Timor-Leste.
Asian Politics & Policy Special Issue. Timor-Leste: Challenges of Postcolonial State Construction and Nation Building
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/aspp.2012.4.issue-1/issuetoc



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Associate Professor Michael Leach
Politics & Public Policy
Faculty of Life and Social Sciences
Swinburne University of Technology
PO Box 218 Hawthorn VIC 
AUSTRALIA 3122
Phone: +61 3 9214 5357
Fax: +61 3 9819 0821
mleach at swin.edu.au




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