The Democratic Development and Consolidation Prospects of East Asia Countries: Analysis from Citizens Political Values
Date Issued
2011
Date
2011
Author(s)
Wu, Chun-Ying
Abstract
East Asian countries range from full democracies to authoritarian regimes. Following the integration of the ASEAN countries and impressive economic development across the region, the future political development of East Asia has attracted considerable attention. In this respect a number of important questions have emerged. First, will the authoritarian regimes in the region democratize? Second, will the current democracies in the region further consolidate their progress? Although these questions have been extensively discussed and analysed within the discipline of political science, scholars have not been able to identify a single national case that shows a positive or negative impact on democratic politics. Clearly, it is not possible to use a single factor to explain the emergence or persistence of democratic politics. However, successful cases of democratization within the third wave democracies included in the Asian Barometer Survey reveal that mobilization and resistance from the civil society sector is essential to successful democratization and sustainable democratic progress. The growth of an effective civil society sector in turn depends on the appearance of liberal democratic values among citizens. Furthermore, if a democratic government is unable to deliver good quality of democratic governance, democratic politics is likely to be unstable. Conversely, if an authoritarian regime is able to deliver effective “democratic” governance, it is likely to be stable.
Therefore, the strength of democratic values and citizens’ evaluations of the quality of democracy are critical factors in the transition to democracy and the consolidation of new democracies. What factors influence collective democratic values and citizens’ evaluations of the quality of democracy? How are the democratic values of individual citizens produced? What factors produce political stability in democracies and democratic transitions in authoritarian regimes? In order to probe these puzzles, this paper uses data from the second wave of the Asia Barometer Survey.
The results of our empirical study reveal that the greatest barrier to the future democratic development of the East Asia region is a lack of civil liberal values. Many citizens hope for a harmonious and stable society, and are willing to grant extensive powers to executive bodies. At the same time, the concept of the rule of law is not deeply embedded within society. As a result, even when semi-democracy or authoritarian regimes in East Asia fail to respect human rights, restrict civil liberties, and interfere with the legal process, there is no large scale mobilization within society demanding political liberalization. The fact that most citizens oppose authoritarian regimes is not the same as saying that democratic values have become mainstream within society. Conversely, existing democracies within the region are facing wide spread dissatisfaction with democratization. So far, this has caused political upheavals, but not the collapse of democratic government. However, unstable democracies such as Thailand and the Philippines are unlikely to see an improvement due to a lack of liberal democratic values within society.
Subjects
democratization
democratic consolidation
political culture
political development
democratic quality
File(s)![Thumbnail Image]()
Loading...
Name
ntu-100-R96322029-1.pdf
Size
23.54 KB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum
(MD5):b52a5450ae7d2e672100f656859644b4