This document examines the prospective impact of the emergence of China as a regional power in the Asia Pacific and its effects on the future of the democratization process in the region. Of particular concern here is the effect of a strong and politically assertive China on the prognosis for a nascent democratic community in East Asia. Since 1986, the spread of democracy and the process of democratic consolidation in the region have proceeded steadily but at an uneven pace across a number of countries. Both processes have been marked by difficulties in institution-building, the popular understanding of participation, the acceptance of individual rights and social obligations as inherently equal aspects of democratic rule, and on how political elites have institutionalized representation and accountability. On the whole, democratic norms and structures in these countries remain compromised in some cases, and fragile for the most part – that is, susceptible to the influence or impact of changes in the regional or international order. To read more…download below:
The Asia Democracy Network’s most recent research on impacts of illiberal influence on democracy in the Asia region.