Book
Reviews
"Ong provides a thorough explanation of coalition formation, with a close attention to the motives, calculations, and sometimes the hubris of party leaders... To explain these unified coalitions, Ong presents a persuasive theory: opposition parties coalesce when signs of regime weakness convince them that a coalition can win and no party thinks they can do it on their own... Overall, I found the case studies to be convincing and compelling. The discussion is noteworthy for taking these opposition parties’ calculations and agency seriously, correcting for an overwhelming focus in past work on ruling parties....
It is worth noting, especially for graduate students and young scholars, that all three books showcase the convergence of style and organization seen in a lot of current comparative work at top academic presses. The research is driven by a clear, compelling puzzle. An introduction outlines the argument, the evidence, and the importance of the subject, with no dramatic twists or secret explanations left to future chapters. A theory chapter deepens the analysis, but without getting bogged down in literature review. A large-N, cross-country analysis may be present, but is not sold as the sole (or even primary) source of evidence. Instead, each book heavily relies on carefully considered, paired comparisons of chapter-length cases within the same region. This carries the most weight in Ong’s book, but the emphasis on the virtues of case analysis is clear across all three. Scholars of autocracy can learn a lot from reading these books about relatively overlooked cases (like Higashijima’s account of Kazakhstan and Daly’s account of Guatemala’s 1996 election) and under-studied features of prominent cases (like Ong’s account of coalition formation in Malaysia and Singapore)."
Associate Professor Michael Miller
George Washington University
Reviewed in Perspectives on Politics
"Opposing Power: Building Opposition Alliances in Electoral Autocracies is a welcome addition to the scholarship on hybrid regimes, political parties, and democracy, with its in-depth examination of East and Southeast Asian cases. It addresses theoretically and empirically important questions about the possibility of opposition unity and its electoral rise under electoral autocracies and its findings contribute to our renewed understanding of the durability and vulnerability of authoritarian incumbents. It also enriches our knowledge on party politics and democratization in Asia, which remains quite thin compared to that in other regions."
Professor Yoonkyung Lee
Korea Foundation Chair of Korean Studies
University of Toronto
Reviewed in Pacific Affairs
"East and Southeast Asia have witnessed historic and at times surprising regime transitions in recent decades. Opposing Power by Elvin Ong offers a timely, well designed and empirically rich account to explore the various ways in which opposition alliances are forged to bring about such transitions... ...His comparative and historical analysis of four Asian autocracies - the Philippines, South Korea, Malaysia, and SIngapore - make valuable contributions to the scholarship on political regimes, comparative democratization, and party and electoral politics."
Associate Professor Kikue Hamayotsu
Department of Political Science
Northern Illinois University
Reviewed in Journal of Asian Studies
"Ong's book is a valuable contribution to the literature on opposition alliance formation under electoral authoritarianism and its relation to democratization in two ways. First, with its comparative analysis of East and Southeast Asia regimes, this book tests existing theoretical accounts developed in different social, economic, and cultural contexts. Second, it extends the existing explanations of opposition alliance formation by incorporating additional explanatory factors that are particularly relevant to East and Southeast Asia. Ong's scholarship adds significant nuance to our understanding of how opposition leaders operate under electoral authoritarianism."
Associate Professor Dr. Khoo Ying Hooi,
Head of Department of International and Strategic Studies,
University of Malaya
Reviewed in Contemporary Southeast Asia
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