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

这是一项关于东亚和东南亚地区民主化的研究。在过去二十年中，有许多国家成功地实现了民主化，东亚的韩国和台湾，东南亚的菲律宾、印度尼西亚、东帝汶、泰国和柬埔寨。大多数新兴民主国家都在努力实现巩固。然而，这两个地区的特点是政治制度非常多样化。还有四个列宁主义政权，一个军政府，一个独裁政权和两个经常被视为“软威权主义”的民主国家。我们从该地区选出了五个民主国家：韩国、菲律宾、印度尼西亚、泰国和柬埔寨。五位各自国家的政治专家研究了每个国家的民主转型（和巩固）。在两位政治理论专家的帮助下，我们试图从比较和历史的角度来思考民主化。除了每个国家的详细情况外，还确认了四个要点。首先，各国开始民主化的原因是不同的。第二，巩固民主政权远比推翻非民主政权困难。第三，由于民主化至少需要几十年的时间，我们必须从历史的角度来考虑。第四，政治精英对民主化进程至关重要

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