Democracy in Asia explained

Democracy in Asia can be comparatively assessed^[1] according to various definitions of democracy.^[2] According to the V-Dem Democracy indices, the Asian countries with the highest democracy scores in 2023 are Japan, Taiwan, South Korea, Cyprus and Israel, meanwhile the Asian countries with lowest democracy scores in 2023 are Saudi Arabia, China and Afghanistan.^[3] Democratic backsliding can be observed in parts of Asia.^[4] The V-Dem Democracy Report identified for the year 2023 East Timor as a case of stand-alone democratization and Thailand and Maldives as cases of U-Turn Democratization.^[5]

Measures of democracy

The table below shows Asian countries scored on V-Dem Democracy indices in 2024.^{[5] [3] [6]}

Country !colspan="2"

Democracy Indices	Democracy Component Indices
Electoral	Liberal	Liberal	Egalitarian	Participatory	Deliberative
	0.823	0.722	0.878	0.913	0.751	0.897
	0.818	0.731	0.901	0.927	0.565	0.9
	0.723	0.634	0.889	0.762	0.603	0.759
	0.703	0.604	0.863	0.863	0.61	0.844
	0.698	0.507	0.692	0.555	0.554	0.72
	0.681	0.523	0.742	0.592	0.614	0.555
	0.634	0.422	0.611	0.811	0.442	0.69
	0.604	0.473	0.761	0.784	0.542	0.803
	0.599	0.453	0.728	0.61	0.49	0.782
	0.58	0.421	0.688	0.625	0.549	0.61
	0.541	0.36	0.604	0.445	0.595	0.816
	0.527	0.445	0.819	0.831	0.558	0.921
	0.527	0.405	0.732	0.607	0.398	0.769
	0.506	0.359	0.655	0.726	0.533	0.662
	0.475	0.383	0.761	0.493	0.527	0.524
	0.43	0.287	0.581	0.334	0.567	0.749
	0.403	0.331	0.735	0.81	0.134	0.738
	0.377	0.275	0.621	0.429	0.507	0.612
	0.367	0.21	0.452	0.449	0.462	0.589
	0.364	0.237	0.529	0.503	0.472	0.667
	0.358	0.199	0.432	0.582	0.392	0.367
	0.344	0.212	0.484	0.243	0.545	0.531
	0.333	0.313	0.8	0.58	0.186	0.66
	0.288	0.228	0.598	0.472	0.388	0.341
	0.287	0.113	0.245	0.53	0.416	0.195
	0.284	0.144	0.345	0.597	0.299	0.446
	0.256	0.253	0.729	0.566	0.284	0.692
(West Bank)	0.254	0.138	0.359	0.623	0.422	0.388
	0.253	0.096	0.219	0.243	0.303	0.298
	0.215	0.081	0.2	0.449	0.173	0.445
	0.198	0.057	0.13	0.219	0.371	0.187
	0.19	0.062	0.151	0.396	0.379	0.2
	0.188	0.064	0.162	0.37	0.119	0.123
	0.17	0.137	0.436	0.58	0.388	0.203
	0.168	0.041	0.091	0.198	0.157	0.149
	0.156	0.082	0.246	0.5	0.079	0.186
	0.154	0.124	0.401	0.721	0.131	0.17
	0.15	0.036	0.083	0.288	0.065	0.043
	0.149	0.114	0.372	0.662	0.563	0.613
	0.146	0.054	0.153	0.167	0.137	0.056
(Gaza Strip)	0.136	0.07	0.219	0.582	0.357	0.202
	0.132	0.095	0.313	0.44	0.393	0.181
	0.13	0.048	0.14	0.108	0.217	0.181
	0.129	0.054	0.165	0.391	0.122	0.209
	0.102	0.078	0.27	0.486	0.095	0.285
	0.087	0.085	0.306	0.382	0.041	0.389
	0.084	0.015	0.036	0.317	0.153	0.036
	0.081	0.016	0.044	0.207	0.314	0.221
	0.075	0.03	0.101	0.112	0.03	0.093
	0.074	0.037	0.129	0.315	0.124	0.382
	0.015	0.046	0.184	0.446	0.087	0.249

See also

• Democracy in Europe
• Democracy in the Middle East and North Africa
• Democratic backsliding by country#Asia

Notes and References

1. Geissel . Brigitte . Kneuer . Marianne . Lauth . Hans-Joachim . Measuring the quality of democracy: Introduction . . Sage Publications . 37 . 5 . 2016 . 0192-5121. 26556872 . 571–579 . 10.1177/0192512116669141 . 151808737 . 2023-04-03.
2. Web site: Greenwood . Shannon . Appendix A: Classifying democracies . Pew Research Center's Global Attitudes Project . 2022-12-06 . 2022-12-27.
3. Web site: V-Dem Institute . 2023 . The V-Dem Dataset . 14 October 2023.
4. Democratic regression in Asia: Introduction . 10.1080/13510347.2020.1851203 . 2021 . Croissant . Aurel . Haynes . Jeffrey . Democratization . 28 . 1–21 .
5. Lindberg . Staffan I. . Staffan I. Lindberg . Nord . Marina . Lundstedt . Martin . Altman . David . Angiolillo . Fabio . Borella . Cecillia . Fernandes . Tiago . Gastaldi . Lisa . Good God . Ana . Natsika . Natlia . 4 . 2024 . Democracy Report 2024: Democracy Winning and Losing at the Ballot . University of Gothenburg: V-Dem Institute.
6. Book: Coppedge . Michael . Varieties of Democracy: Measuring Two Centuries of Political Change . Gerring . John . Glynn . Adam . Knutsen . Carl Henrik . Lindberg . Staffan I. . Staffan I. Lindberg . Pemstein . Daniel . Seim . Brigitte . Skaaning . Svend-Erik . Teorell . Jan . January 2020 . . 9781108347860 . 10.1017/9781108347860 . 5 . Altman . David . Bernhard . Michael . Bizzarro . Fernando . Krusell . Joshua . Maguire . Matthew . Marquardt . Kyle . McMann . Kelly . Mechkova . Valeriya . Miri . Farhad . Pernes . Josefine . Staton . Jeffrey . Stepanova . Natalia . Tzelgov . Eitan . Wang . Yi-ting.