Government at a Glance Southeast Asia 2019

Annex C. Contextual factors

This section provides data on administrative and institutional features of each country, including: the regime type; the composition and electoral system of the legislature; the structure of the executive branch; the division of power between one central and several regional or local governments; and key characteristics of the judicial system. It also provides basic data on population and gross domestic product (GDP) for 2018 and data on the number of municipalities, provinces, states and/or regions.

Political and institutional frameworks influence those who formulate and implement policy responses to the challenges faced by governments. For example, the type of electoral system employed has a number of potential consequences on the nature and tenure of government, including the diversity of views represented and the ability of the legislature to create and amend laws. Major differences in legislative institutions can affect the way a country’s bureaucratic system works. The extent that power is shared between the legislative and executive branches, exemplified by the system of executive power (parliamentary, presidential or dual executive), the frequency of elections and term limits, the ease of constitutional amendments, and the ability of the judiciary to review the constitutionality of laws and actions, set the constraints within which policies and reforms can be enacted and implemented. The way that governments are structured, including the division of responsibilities vertically (across levels of governments) and horizontally (between departments or ministries), is a key factor underlying the organisational capacity of government. Different structures and responsibilities require different sets of competencies, including oversight, monitoring and evaluation and co-ordination.

While many contextual factors are products of a country’s historical development and cannot be easily changed by policy makers, they can be used to identify countries with similar political and administrative structures for comparison and benchmarking purposes. In addition, for countries considering different policies and reforms, the indicators can illustrate structural differences that may affect their passage and implementation.

Methodology and definitions

GDP data are from the IMF World Economic Outlook Database.

Federal states have a constitutionally delineated division of political authority between one central and several regional or state autonomous governments. While unitary states often include multiple levels of government (such as local and provincial or regional), these administrative divisions are not constitutionally defined.

Under the parliamentary form of executive power, the executive is usually the head of the dominant party in the legislature and appoints members of that party or coalition parties to serve as ministers. The executive is accountable to parliament, who can end the executive’s term through a vote of no confidence. Several countries with parliamentary systems also have a president, whose powers are predominantly ceremonial in nature. Under the presidential system, the executive and members of the legislature seek election independently of one another. Ministers are not elected members of the legislature but are nominated by the president and may be approved by the members of the legislature. The dual executive system combines a powerful president with an executive responsible to the legislature, with both responsible for the day-to-day activities of the state. It differs from the presidential system in that the cabinet (although named by the president) is responsible to the legislature, which may force the cabinet to resign through a motion of no confidence.

Data on the frequency of governments cover the period between 1 January 1998 and 31 August 2018. The number of governments is determined by the number of terms served by the head of the executive branch (where a term is either defined by a change in the executive or an election that renewed support for the current government).

A ministry is an organisation in the executive branch that is responsible for a sector of public administration. Common examples include ministries of health, education and finance. While sub-national governments may also be organised into ministries, the data only refer to central government. Ministers advise the executive and are in charge of either one or more ministries, or a portfolio of government duties. In most parliamentary systems, ministers are drawn from the legislature and keep their seats. In most presidential systems, ministers are not elected officials and are appointed by the president. The data refer to the number of ministers that comprise the cabinet at the central level of government and exclude deputy ministers.

Bicameral legislatures have two chambers (usually an upper house and a lower house), whereas unicameral legislatures are composed of only a lower house. Electoral systems are usually characterised as single member (first-past-the-post or Preferential and two-round) or multi member (proportional representation or semi-proportional representation). The types of electoral systems are defined as follows:

Under first-past-the-post, the winner is the candidate with the most votes but not necessarily an absolute majority of votes.

Under preferential and two-round, the winner is the candidate who receives an absolute majority (i.e. over 50%) of votes. If no candidate receives over 50% of votes during the first round of voting, the preferential system makes use of voters’ second preferences while the two-round system uses a second round of voting to produce a winner.

Proportional representation (PR) systems allocate parliamentary seats based on a party’s share of national votes.

 

	Brunei Darussalam	Cambodia	Indonesia	Lao PDR	Malaysia	Myanmar	Philippines	Singapore	Thailand	Viet Nam
Population 2016 WB estimate (in millions)	0.423	15.80	261.1	6.8	31.20	52.9	103.30	5.60	68.90	94.60
GDP in 1988 (PPP in USD billion at current prices)	52743	577	2338	1002	5642	No data	2342	18194	3238	811
GDP in 2018 (PPP in USD billion at current prices)	79726	4322	13162	7932	30858	6802	8893	98014	18944	7463
Change in GDP PPP 1988-2018	34%	87%	82%	87%	82%	No data	74%	81%	83%	89%
Member of the OECD	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
State structure	Unitary	Unitary	Unitary	Unitary	Federal	Unitary	Unitary	Unitary	Unitary	Unitary
Number of tiers of government
State/regional	Not applicable	24	34	Not applicable	13	14	81	Not applicable	76	63
Intermediate	Not applicable	185	Not applicable	16	Not applicable	Not applicable	1594	Not applicable	Not applicable	710
Local	Not applicable	1621	508	Not applicable	149	Not applicable	42028	Not applicable	Not applicable	11145
System of executive power	Constitutional monarchy	Parliamentary constitutional monarchy	Presidential republic	One-party socialist republic	Parliamentary constitutional monarchy	Parliamentary republic	Presidential republic	Parliamentary republic	Constitutional monarchy / Military-affiliated government since 2014	One-party socialist republic
Head of state	Sultan	Monarch	President	President	Monarch	President	President	President	Monarch	President
Head of government	Sultan	Prime Minister	President	Prime Minister	Prime Minister	State Counsellor	President	Prime Minister	Prime Minister	Prime Minister
Separation of powers	No	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes
Term limit for heads of state (years)	None	None	10	None	5	5	6	6	None	10
Governments at the central level between 1998 and 2018
Total number of governments	1	5	6	3	5	6	4	5	7	2
Number of Ministers at the central level of government (2018)	13	27	34	23	28	24	20	19	27	27
Number of Ministries or Departments at the central level of government (2018)	13	25	34	16	26	24	20	16	20	22
Upper House (central government)
Existence	No	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	No
Membership based on regional considerations?	Not applicable	Partially	Yes	Not applicable	Partially	No	No	Not applicable	Not applicable	Not applicable
Frequency of elections or appointments (in years)	Not applicable	6	5	Not applicable	3	5	6	Not applicable	Not applicable	Not applicable
Size - number of seats	Not applicable	62	132	Not applicable	70	224	24	Not applicable	Not applicable	Not applicable
Lower House (central government)
Electoral system	Not applicable	Proportional representation	Proportional representation	First-past-the-post	First-past-the-post	330 seats by first-past-the-post; 110 seats appointed by military	238 seats by first-past-the-post; 59 by party-list PR	88 seats by First Past the Post; 9 seats nominated by parliamentary selection committee and the President; 3 non-constituency seats from opposition parties	Junta appointed at time of publication; Elections announced for February 2019	Absolute majority vote with a second round if needed
Frequency of elections (in years)	Appointments by the Sultan	5	5	5	5	5	3	5	5	5
Size - number of seats	33	125	560	149	222	440	297	100	250	500
Judicial system	Mixed legal system: English common law and Islamic law	Mixed legal system: civil law; customary law; Communist legal theory, and common law	Civil law system, influenced by customary law	Civil law system, similar to the French system	Mixed legal system: English common law; Islamic law, and customary law	Mixed legal system: English common law and customary law	Mixed legal system: civil; common; Islamic, and customary law	English common law system	Civil law system with common law influences	Civil law system
Existence of system of judicial review of the constitutionality of laws and actions	Judicial review (dual system of secular and Sharia courts)	Judicial review	Judicial review	Judicial review	Judicial review	Limited judicial review	Judicial review	Judicial review	Judicial review	Limited judicial review

Notes: EIU: Economist Intelligence Unit; PR: proportional representation; WB: World Bank.