Political Stability In Modernization In Malaysia: From Perspective Of Party System

Focus on unit-level research in international politics is similar to comparative politics—unit is fundermental to both of them. Most countries are in modernization at present, and the argument on diversification or homogenization of developmental model is long-standing. However, it is indisputable that there is an increasing consensus. Since the study of political develoment rose in 1960s, a series of significant changes took place in the Third World in the final phase of the Cold War, for example, the rise of the NICs, the democratic transition of authoritarian regimes, and the highlighting impact of globalization. The properties of international system changes so greatly that the existence of the Third World is questioned. The third wave of democratization is still rewriting the political map of developing countries currently, among which the Southeast Asia is typical—where the diversity is most obvious, and therefore is the most convincing proving ground for democratization. Under internal and external pressures, how the developing countries maintain political stability in democratization has not been resolved completely in theory or in practice. Party system acting as a variable, this paper tries to analyse the complex relationship between democratization and political development in transforming societies, which gives connotation of the times to the traditional topic of political stability. Longitudinal and horizontal studies show that there exists an intrinsical link between party system and political stability. The key lies in whether the resilience of party system adapts to the dynamically developing socio-ecological systems.As one of small and medium-sized countries in East Asia, the typicality of Malaysia is the medium level of development first of all—this country is regarded as one of the NICs, the feature of social transformation being prominent, modernization making the transitionality of political, economic and cultural dimensions very obvious. Secondly, the typicality of Malaysia can be attributed to its cultural diversity. Historical and geographical reasons make here be an epitome of blend and collision among the world's major civilizations. During the process of political development, the damand for stability is extremely strong, which is not only the reflection of the urgent need for modernization and nation-state building, but also the result of subjective construction of political elites. The typical multi-ethnic structure makes nation-state building a long way to go, and the rapidly advancing modernization leads to the incompatibility between political structure and economic social structure, as well as the imbalanced distribution of power and wealth among different social groups. It is necessary to solve the problem of political stability by some institutional designs to ensure the process of modernization. As the endogenous factor of political system, the change of political culture is an important aspect of modernization changes. In this process, the complex and multi-faceted concept interaction among ethnic elites as well as the masses makes political stability be a product of construction in a sense. The term of political stability is used most frequently in the political context of Malaysia. The ruling elite are trying to influence mass perceptions of legitimacy, and carrying out the political integration continuously by public power agencies, mainstream media and educational institutions. In some sense, Malaysia is one of the developing countries that maintain political stability the most successfully. This can be owing to a variety of reasons, Modernization Theory, regime stability theory and political culture theory all have strong explanatory power to the the political stability in Malaysia.In view of the ethnic, class and other social differentiation, the quasi-authoritarian regime supported by one-party dominant system contributes to some kind of corporatism. Early in the decolonization period, the rudiment of party system was established by the composition of forces of external and local factors, with a significant impact on the independence of Malaya, thus the historical legitimacy of ruling party originated. After the modernization process was started, laissez-faire economic policy was once implemented by the ruling party. Accordingly, competitive parliamentary democracy was operated. However, class and ethnic differentiations were increasingly intensified. Stimulated by the pluralistic party competition, social mobilization and mass political participation soon went beyond the capacity of the political system, which resulted in the serious political unrest in the late of 1960s. In the modernization process, the East Asian authoritarian regimes are instrumental and transitional, which are embodied in the maintenance of political stability and the promotion of economic growth. However, the effectiveness of these regimes is not inexhaustible. Economic performance, cultivatation of ideology, environment stressed, temptation of commitment as well as personal charisma under the authoritarian regimes is nothing but temporary substitutes to democracy. Although a major turning point occurred after the ethnic riot of 1969 in Malaysia, the universal value of democracy was not negated for this reason. It is mainly the low level of economic and social development that leads to the frustration of democcy, under such conditions political participation not accommodated by the tender institutional authority, and the contradictions between competitive democracy and ethnicism difficult to reconcile for the moment. The ruling coalition based on ethnic groups the most widely provides a new solution for the reconstruction of political stability. As an institutional instrument to maintain the dominant position of UMNO to a large extent, the National Front has stronger capacity for collective action. On the other hand, this coalition also meet the rational needs to avoid zero-sum or negative-sum game.Under the auspices of the UMNO, the ruling coalition distributes power in accordance with the principle of consultation, and the member parties become stakeholders In some sense, the expansion and consolidation of elite catel may be the structural factor of maintaining political stability.UMNO adheres to developmentalism and economic performance becomes the most important source of legitimacy, so economic growth is functionally converted into political stability successfully. However, the phenomena of patronage are widespread affected by the traditional political culture, and the ruling elites are involved in the economic field deeply. In the process of modernization led by the ruling party, party competition is inhibited to a large extent, and the repressiveness of political stability is quite prominent. Meanwhile, ethnic factors is almost the constant that affects political stability—the main ruling parties regard ethnicity as the most basic source of legitimacy, and usually give priority to ethnic relationship in policy agenda, which gives legitimacy certainly to the authoritarian regime in regard to controlling ethnic conflict. However, there is a paradox difficult to be overcome by authoritarian regime itself—the sustained economic development is a double-edged sword, which provides enormous performance legitimacy to UMNO while fostering social forces deconstructive to the base of authoritarian rule in the long run. For this reason the political development of developing countries is not linear, but the ecnomic modernization will create basic conditions for political democratization anyway. Accordingly, the recession of authoritarian is the inevitable result of modernization, meanwhile political stability need to combine with the development of democracy increasingly.The legitimacy of party system is of great significance to political stability. Institutionalization is an important dimension of obtaining legitimacy, and a basic staff gauge to measure the political development of developing countries. The base of institutionalization is the development of constitutionalism, as well as the various regulations for party politics. Compared with the other developing countries, Malaysia has a higher level of institutionalization of party politics, even if UMNO has to interpret its ruling legitimacy by institution. On the other hand, there are some institutional deficiencies detrimental to political stability in Malaysian party politics, for example, the phenomena of patronage associated with traditionality spread in the system. In order to lay a solid foundation for the legitimacy of party system, introduction of the variable of democratization is necessary so that democratization and institutionalization can promote each other. In a variety of political authorities, the authority of ruling party has a direct impact on government legitimacy. In accordance with the evolution law of the types of authority, party authority should be oriented to institutional authority with optimal form and stongest legitimacy ultimately, for the latter is most conducive to carry out political integration. As effectiveness is the core element of institutional authority, and also the basis for the achievement of political stability, developing countries are more likely to fall into the the situation of "failed states" without an effective institutional authority.Democratization is an irresistible historical trend, and the impact of the third wave on Malaysian party system becomes more and more apparent, resulting in the weakening of the system function of political stability. Malaysia can be classified as a typical durable authoritarian regime—although the pressure of political transformation is increasing, the disruptive changes are unlikely to occur. This is because Malaysian political system has greater openness, and still has a stronger response capability to social changes. Institutional environment in Malaysia is more favorable to the gradual democratization, but not the breeding grounds for radicalism. The embryonic form of two-front system shows further and the quasi-hegemonic position of ruling party is shaken currently, so its willingness to initiate reform is increasing. Especially the ethnic political model is being questioned increasingly; as the product of economic modernization, the emerging civil society will be a dynamic force for political development of Malaysia. Generally the middle class in East Asia have dual characteristics of conservative and revolutionary: as the beneficiaries of modernization, they do not want to see social and political disorder; on the other hand, their demands for reform are increasingly strong. As the main driving force of Malaysia's new politics, the opposition political parties, non-governmental organizations and independent new media echo each other, thus the connotation of the opposition has been expanded. Since democratization has complex impacts on political stability, the gradual political transition is the most conducive to achieve political stability at lower social cost. In this process, the party system should absorb political participation more spreadly, and promote the establishment of positive interactionship between state and society, so that political stability can be reconstructed on the basis of new legitimacy.In conclusion, based on the East Asian countries which are in the process of modernization, this paper tries to interprete political stability in line with the times, taking the new variables into account as much as possible. Despite the vast number of developing countries and the small number of post-modern countres are in the same international community, their fundamental concerns are quite different from each other. In the former political units, the nation-state needs to be consolidated, while the relationship between state and society is undergoing profound changes, and the permeability factors of globalization and cyber politics are merging. Developing Countries usually have to withstand more challenges from crisis, so an effective party system will be a basic approach to social and political integration. However, the system needs to absorb the newly emerging social forces increasingly, so that gradual change of governance model can be achieved. The future model is a multi-dimensional governance structure which is still dominated by party system, but participated jointly by multi-actors. This model will give more emphasis to equal interaction, and its flexible network structure adapts better to the needs of political stability. Structural crisis of authoritarian regime is inevitable, whether the change of party system can reflect the changes in social structure will have a far-reaching impact on the political development and stability of these countries.