Incomplete democracies in the Asia-Pacific

Democracy is an ongoing process that proceeds in fits and starts, and involves much more than elections or free speech. It is refreshing to find a book that assumes that democracies, particularly east Asian ones, are fraught with complexity, popular impatience and backsliding. Young democracies are particularly prone to poorly institutionalized norms and longing for the order of recently abandoned autocracies. As the book under review went to print, Thailand underwent its second coup d'état within a decade, and it is not clear when it will emerge from military rule. Based on extensive survey work by Johns Hopkins University's School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) in four Asian countries (Thailand, the Philippines, Indonesia and South Korea), the volume's chapters give readers an unmatched, albeit slightly uneven, overview of the region's recent democratic progress. It is recommended to both Asia scholars and students of democratization. Giovanna Dore and Karl Jackson find surprising convergences in the four cases. Voting in elections is how most people in the four countries define democracy, and civil society groups tend to be ‘fluid, personal, and hierarchical rather than stable, ideological, and egalitarian’ (p. 3). Most people have not participated in party activities, and popular political views alternate between authoritarian and democratic. Populist or charismatic leaders have much appeal, and they can relatively easily overcome the ephemeral chaff of everyday politics. Likewise, elites can shape political events to follow a conventional democratic road. Accordingly, each of the four countries has trod a slightly different path: Korea as a fast-developing nation that quickly democratized; Indonesia as a stunning success story given its start-stop-start pattern of political development since the Suharto government stepped down; the Philippines as the oldest south-east Asian republic that, ironically, kept the colonial landed elite in power; and Thailand as a state oscillating between heavy-handed military regimes and feckless civilian rule

Appeal · Authoritarianism · Autocracy · Charisma · Democracy · Democratization · Development economics · Economics · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Asian Studies and History · Law · Southeast Asian Sociopolitical Studies