In Karl Marx’s view, a society’s economic system is the
fundamental factor that determines the political system.
1 But
according to the recent experience of ASEAN member states, the
other way round holds, that is to say the political system is the major
determinant of economic development. At the end of Second World
War, all ASEAN member countries all were in a process of developing.
Since then they have been in the process of, more or less, trying to
transform themselves into a modern democratic states. Each country
was under different types of leadership, and adopted its own
political system and policy to achieve desired state-building goals. In
general, we can divide them into five types of government, namely:
an absolute monarchy, military rule, a Communist one-party
government, a one-party dominant government, and a multi-party
government.