Democracy in Asia

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 year 2023 were Taiwan, Japan, Cyprus, Israel, and South Korea, 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]

Map of V-Dem Electoral Democracy Index for 2024 in Asia

0.900–1.000   0.800–0.899   0.700–0.799

0.600–0.699   0.500–0.599   0.400–0.499

0.300–0.399   0.200–0.299   0.100–0.199

0.000–0.099   No data

By country

• Democracy in Afghanistan
• Democracy in Bangladesh
• Democracy in Bhutan
• Democracy in China
  • Democracy in Hong Kong
• Democracy in India
• Democracy in Iraq
• Democracy in Pakistan

Measures of democracy

The table below shows Asian countries scored on V-Dem Democracy indices for year 2024.^[6][7][8]

V-Dem Democracy Indices

Country	Democracy Indices		Democracy Component Indices
	Electoral	Liberal	Liberal	Egalitarian	Participatory	Deliberative
Japan	0.82	0.734	0.902	0.934	0.562	0.908
Taiwan	0.8	0.7	0.878	0.874	0.748	0.844
Cyprus	0.774	0.651	0.839	0.902	0.566	0.831
East Timor	0.733	0.549	0.72	0.569	0.552	0.715
South Korea	0.729	0.631	0.872	0.856	0.61	0.809
Israel	0.715	0.617	0.869	0.808	0.601	0.773
Nepal	0.669	0.522	0.76	0.585	0.583	0.611
Sri Lanka	0.664	0.486	0.699	0.671	0.594	0.617
Armenia	0.623	0.414	0.61	0.802	0.411	0.688
Maldives	0.564	0.423	0.714	0.584	0.48	0.705
Bhutan	0.561	0.454	0.783	0.826	0.541	0.899
Malaysia	0.517	0.362	0.643	0.709	0.538	0.673
Mongolia	0.496	0.389	0.736	0.653	0.402	0.746
Indonesia	0.483	0.326	0.606	0.538	0.592	0.811
Georgia	0.48	0.328	0.615	0.726	0.507	0.751
Papua New Guinea	0.461	0.384	0.784	0.461	0.514	0.507
Philippines	0.435	0.308	0.633	0.314	0.571	0.526
Singapore	0.414	0.343	0.752	0.805	0.132	0.742
India	0.398	0.291	0.635	0.425	0.521	0.629
Thailand	0.389	0.289	0.646	0.483	0.356	0.371
Iraq	0.351	0.228	0.524	0.459	0.438	0.594
Lebanon	0.348	0.207	0.463	0.379	0.421	0.557
Kyrgyzstan	0.333	0.183	0.411	0.619	0.397	0.373
Pakistan	0.313	0.199	0.48	0.223	0.499	0.529
Kuwait	0.292	0.266	0.716	0.613	0.148	0.433
Turkey	0.288	0.117	0.255	0.539	0.422	0.182
Jordan	0.273	0.274	0.772	0.577	0.302	0.876
Kazakhstan	0.272	0.134	0.326	0.539	0.291	0.5
Uzbekistan	0.215	0.078	0.19	0.435	0.196	0.422
Palestine (West Bank)	0.214	0.117	0.323	0.541	0.469	0.177
Bangladesh	0.201	0.068	0.2	0.323	0.243	0.293
Cambodia	0.186	0.056	0.133	0.206	0.207	0.183
Azerbaijan	0.175	0.054	0.133	0.34	0.102	0.093
Tajikistan	0.174	0.05	0.12	0.197	0.144	0.136
Vietnam	0.174	0.124	0.382	0.614	0.499	0.659
Oman	0.174	0.14	0.443	0.571	0.388	0.189
Russia	0.172	0.056	0.143	0.371	0.376	0.109
Hong Kong	0.169	0.133	0.421	0.736	0.142	0.15
Iran	0.167	0.092	0.275	0.473	0.092	0.324
Turkmenistan	0.149	0.033	0.076	0.289	0.075	0.039
Syria	0.145	0.054	0.155	0.23	0.194	0.085
Laos	0.134	0.102	0.339	0.428	0.386	0.164
Yemen	0.127	0.047	0.142	0.087	0.166	0.132
Bahrain	0.124	0.052	0.158	0.385	0.115	0.158
United Arab Emirates	0.103	0.078	0.27	0.45	0.086	0.298
Palestine (Gaza)	0.095	0.053	0.18	0.405	0.212	0.113
Qatar	0.087	0.08	0.284	0.395	0.105	0.387
North Korea	0.083	0.014	0.033	0.31	0.153	0.016
Myanmar	0.083	0.016	0.041	0.21	0.34	0.195
Afghanistan	0.081	0.016	0.044	0.077	0.027	0.073
China	0.073	0.036	0.125	0.302	0.1	0.227
Saudi Arabia	0.015	0.047	0.187	0.449	0.081	0.258

Human Rights in Southeast Asian Democracies

Background:

Human rights scores provided by the Human Rights Measurement Initiative in the Southeast Asian region are compared to Democracy Index scores provided by V-Dem as the basis for the analysis. In this context, human rights are defined as the ability of a nation to maximize its capacity to provide access to basic social needs for its people.

Use Cases:

It is useful to analyze human rights scores in Southeast Asian democracies. The region is known for having some of the highest levels of human rights violations in the world and for having a variety of autocratic and democratic nations within a small demographic. Spotting trends of high levels of human rights abuse in democratic nations may signal democratic backsliding.

Case Studies:

The following three countries have the highest democracy index scores in Southeast Asia. These scores will be compared to human rights scores based on citizens’ rights to education, work, food, health, and housing. A score below 75% out of 100% is considered very bad, a score between 95% and 100% is considered good.

Timor-Leste (SEA democracy rank- 1):

After Indonesia granted independence to Timor-Leste following two decades of autocratic rule and a reported 100,000 deaths, the nation held its first democratic election on August 30, 2001. The country experienced democratic instability in the preceding years. However, its recent elections, characterized by peaceful transitions of power, have led the nation to achieve some of the highest democracy scores in the region. However, the nation remains economically challenged, and citizens’ access to all five categories of education, work, food, health, and housing all fall in the HRMI’s “very bad” category, with the mean score being 58% out of 100%.

Malaysia (SEA democracy rank- 2):

Malaysia is a federal constitutional monarchy and the only federal system in the Southeast Asian region. It is ranked second in its respective region for democracy, and despite recent political turmoil, elections are usually followed by peaceful transitions of power. Malaysia has made significant strides to reduce poverty in the country. It received an aggregate score of 78% by the HRMI. While the aggregate ranking falls in the “bad” category, individual scores for work (99%) and housing (90%) fall into the “good” and “fair” categories, respectively.

The Philippines (SEA democracy rank- 3):

The Republic of the Philippines was the first democratic republic in the region after achieving independence from the United States in 1946. The country’s government is modeled after that in the United States, and has achieved peaceful transitions of power up until Ferdinand Marcos’ rule beginning in 1965. The nation has had lasting economic effects from the Marcos era, although power has transitioned fairly peacefully since. In recent years, the Philippines has been cited as experiencing democratic backsliding by some scholars. The nation scores an aggregate 72% from the HRMI, landing it in the “very bad” category. Categories for health (77%), housing (80%), and work (82%) all fall within the “bad” category.

See also

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