This article examines South Korea's foreign policy behaviors, focusing on its policy related to the issue of troop dispatches abroad. The analysis begins with an overview of troop dispatch overseas in international politics. After careful consideration of troop dispatch policies of other countries and the policy of South Korea, the study concludes that although there are various forms and declared objectives for Seoul's troop dispatch policy, the policy exhibits a consistent pattern: South Korea's relationships with and concern about the U.S. alliance is important; gaining economic benefits, especially winning construction projects, is an essential motivation; securing energy sources is also imperative; and Seoul's concern about its image and reputation around the world—and hence the promotion of soft power—is becoming increasingly important. The findings are both theoretically and empirically important given the lack of satisfactory research on nonmajor powers’ troop dispatch policies.

In the last two decades, Indonesia has been swiftly maneuvering between China and the United States in the context of the great powers' contest in the region. But a look further into history shows deeper dynamics of Indonesia-China relations, in which Indonesia demonstrates paradigm shifts of its China policy on the verge of China's rise toward great power status. This article argues for the best use of theoretical eclecticism to comprehend Indonesia's policy perspective toward China's rise as a great power.

Over the past several decades, modernization theory has offered much insight into the conditions necessary for a democratic transition. Proponents of this theory suggest that a link exists between economic development and a democratic transition. Economic development leads to a stronger middle class that develops a greater interest in politics and places demands upon the government, which may lead to regime concessions and an eventual democratic transition. Emerging research, however, suggests there is a link between economic development and the increase in the interest in politics within the working class. This study seeks to answer the question of how economic development impacts interest in politics across social classes in modern authoritarian states. I use ordered logistical regression to test hypotheses derived from these propositions. The results have important implications for understanding the relationship between economic development and political development.

This integrative study builds on the established theories of public policy analysis, economics, and public finance by empirically investigating and analyzing the determinants of public expenditure on education in Thailand. For the purposes of this study, it is posited that education expenditures are determined by multidimensional factors. A number of economic-demographic, political, institutional, and decision-making theories are therefore examined, together with the concept of education. This study recognizes and quantifies education expenditure by both types and stages of education according to the allocation of government budget and the education system in Thailand. The results reveal that education financing policy in Thailand is mainly determined by last year's expenditures. Industrialization also increases the total education expenditure. This is what the incrementalism theory and Wagner's Law postulate, respectively. Moreover, unemployment has an inverse impact on several types of education expenditures. The results imply that the Thai government mainly takes into account only certain factors and neglects to incorporate the importance of demographic and educational indicators when allocating education expenditures.

Vote buying is often conceptualized incorrectly—whether stated or inferred, and usually without being operationalized—as having a simple dichotomous outcome: It is either practiced and it corrupts the electoral process, or it does not. Conceptualizing vote buying in this manner is not only misleading, but it also fails to expose the complex nature of vote buying and its impact on voter turnout. Instead, I conceptualize vote buying as a process that involves specific steps by answering the following questions: How does the vote-buying process unfold, and does vote buying result in votes for the vote buyer? I use interview data from Thai provinces to understand the experiences and perceptions of ordinary Thais at each step of the vote-buying process. The results highlight the importance of viewing vote buying as a process, in addition to understanding the relationship between vote buying and voter turnout.