A Comparative and historical study on democratization in East and Southeast Asia

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This is a study on democratization in East and Southeast Asian regions. There are many countries which, in the last two decades, have succeeded in democratization, South Korea and Taiwan in East Asia, and the Philippines, Indonesia, East Timor, Thailand and Cambodia in Southeast Asia. Most of these new democracies are struggling to achieve consolidation. However, both regions are characterized by a great diversity of political regimes. There remain four Leninist regimes, a military government, an autocratic regime and two democracies that are often regarded as "soft authoritarian."We selected five democracies from the regions, Korea, the Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand and Cambodia. Five specialists on politics of respective country studied democratic transition (and consolidation) in each country. With the help of two scholars specializing on political theory, we have tried to think about democratization from a comparative and historical perspective.In addition to details of each country, four general points are confirmed. First, causes of starting democratization are diff*** from country to country. Second, consolidation of democratic regimes is far difficult than collapse of non-democratic reg***. Third, as democratization needs at least a few decades, we must think it from a historical perspective. Fourth, the r*** political elite is crucial in democratizing process