New Democracy and Autocratization in Asia

Description

This book examines the quality of democracies in Asia and determines why current democracies—especially during the so-called “new normal” era following the 2008 financial crisis—have become less stable and less resilient to increasing authoritarianism. Based on the assumption that the concept of democracy consists of three elements—procedure (participation, competition, and distribution of power); effectiveness (representation, accountability, and responsiveness); and performance (social welfare, inequality, and trust)—the contributors to this book determine which elements are responsible for diverging trajectories within the Asian democratic recession. Examining South Korea, Japan, Taiwan, Singapore, Vietnam, Indonesia, India, Myanmar, and China, the authors employ different research methods—quantitative, comparative, or individual case studies—to explore the conditions under which democratic rules and norms erode over time, and which type of governance is preferred by citizens in this region as an ideal type. The book puts forward the argument that a procedure-oriented concept of democracy is not sufficient for understanding the source of democratic recession and develops a new concept of “new democracy” based on procedure, effectiveness, and performance. It also demonstrates to what extent the experience changes and how the countries respond to these changes. A novel contribution on the state of democracy in Asia written by experts from the region, this book will be of interest to academics in the field of political science, especially comparative politics and international relations, regional study of East and Southeast Asia, sociology, public policy, economics, and social science methods. Also, this book will appeal to think tanks and policy-oriented researchers. Cover Half Title Series Page Title Page Copyright Page Table of Contents List of Figures List of Tables List of Abbreviations List of Contributors Preface Chapter 1 The State of Democracy Chapter 2 Women’s Descriptive and Substantive Representation in East and Southeast Asia Chapter 3 East Asians’ Understanding of Democracy: How Income Inequality Prioritizes Components of Democracy Chapter 4 Democratic Competition and Welfare Development in East Asia: Case Studies on Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, and Singapore Chapter 5 Uncommon Democracy of Japan: Consolidated or Pseudo Democracy? Chapter 6 Grassroots Democracy as a Social Base for Pro-poor Outcomes in Vietnam Chapter 7 The Perceived Quality of Democracy and Political Support in Taiwan Chapter 8 Indonesia: Democratic Procedure and Muslim Democracy Chapter 9 Assessing the Quality of Democracy in India: With Special References to Rule of Law, Participation, Competition Chapter 10 A Refined Model of Contingent Consent: Explaining Popular Support for Singapore’s People’s Action Party Chapter 11 Taiwan’s Democracy at Multiple Crossings: Clashes of Partisanship, Generations, Classes, and Social Values Chapter 12 The “Chinese-style” Political System in the Xi Jinping Era: From Neo-authoritarianism to Quasi-totalism* Chapter 13 Myanmar’s Broken Democracy “Disciplined” by the Military: Analysis on the Quality of Procedure in Fledging Democracy Index