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This paper considers the reform of social contracts in East Asia from 1980-2000. In contrast to Central Europe and Latin America, East Asian transitions to democracy--where they occurred--took place during periods of high growth and robust public finances. The absence of substantial fiscal constraints permitted an expansion of social policy commitments and limited opportunities and incentives for retrenchment. The paper considers four democracies--Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, the Philippines--and two party-dominant systems, Malaysia and Singapore. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper is to examine how international actors influence democratization by focusing on two leading states of recent democratization in East Asia and East Europe - Taiwan and Hungary. The paper seeks to challenge the classic domestically biased assumption that democratization is an exclusively domestic affair, aiming at the transformation of the internal political system, and external factors may play a secondary role. It aims to provide systematic accounts for why and how there are different external actors at different phases of democratization through a cross-regional comparison between the two regions. First, I will examine the dynamics of democratization and the interactions between external and domestic factors in each national case from the phases of transition to consolidation. Next, I will develop some explanatory factors for the international dimension of democratization from the two regions and compare their similarities and differences. For the country case studies, I will be attentive to internal-external linkages and to their own historically specific conditions. For the inter-regional comparison, I will compare Taiwan with Hungary, placing greater emphasis on their common elements across regions and differences shown in each region. My analysis supports following points: (1) in Central Europe, the Soviet presence was a decisive overriding obstacle to democratization, no matter how favorable domestic conditions may be in countries like Hungary. The constraint was gradually lifted under Gorbachev, finally opening the possibility for a successful transition to democracy. Furthermore, the policies of various European institutions like EU, OSCE, the Council of Europe, and NATO are becoming crucial stabilizing elements in the consolidating process. The integration into Western institutions began to act as an external democratic force. (2) in East Asia, the global trend toward economic liberalism did exert some positive impact on the transition to democracy in Taiwan. More fundamentally, unlike Central European cases, the political opening in both Asian cases was not triggered by any major socio-economic crisis, geopolitical change or external market shocks. In both cases, societal support for the regime-sponsored development program has been much more broadly based as compared to many Latin American countries at comparable level of industrialization. Lastly, the dominant characteristic of Taiwan is its inherited legacies of divided nations. Their nationhood problem makes the regime stability highly susceptible to external influences in the processes of democratic transition and consolidation. This paper will be a first effort to compare and distinguish international effects on East Asian patterns of democratization from what has been noted especially in East Europe. It attempts not only to refine current theoretical frameworks, but also to enhance the literature of democratization in both breadth and depth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although in the long term, democratization is expected to exert pacifying effects on international relations, scholars have argued that conflict is more likely during democratic transitions. They argue that politicians in democratizing states are more likely to make jingoistic appeals, and coalitions of political, business, and/or military leaders are likely to form and to ?logroll? for military buildups and other destabilizing policies. This proposition has great significance for East Asia, which faces two potential political transitions: the democratization of China, and Korean unification. This paper tests a theory of democratization and conflict in the cases of three previous East Asian political transitions: Japan, Taiwan, and South Korea. I test not only for the occurrence of conflict, but also for the presence of the predicted mechanisms through which conflict occurs (nationalistic appeals and logrolling). I find that although there is some evidence of nationalistic posturing that is consistent with the theory?s predictions, for the most part, evidence from these cases does not support the theory. Leaders did not make jingoistic appeals; they were more likely to preach stability. Furthermore, I find that the public, the military, and the business community do have substantial influence over policy makers, but do not find that these groups advocated military buildups or offensive military strategies. This study casts doubt on the relevance of the ?democratization and war? thesis for future East Asian political transitions; it finds support for theories in the liberal school of international relations, including the beneficial effects of democratization, policies of engagement, and economic integration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper discusses the role of political ideology and economic growth models in the East Asian peace since the 1980s. It first makes the point that the East Asian peace does not support democratic peace theory, since the region has a great variety of regime forms. Then it suggests that it may still be possible to speak of a 'liberal peace' if we mean economic liberalism. The article finds that the period of relative peace converges with a period of export-oriented growth, made possible by market economic 'liberal' reforms. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing on the theory of "deliberative democracy" we develop a two-step deliberative approach to the recording of Asia's contested history. The first is theoretical. We develop a new politics of history and deliberative approach with the specification of ideal-type conditions for deliberation. The approach encourages pluralist rather than nationalist, deliberative rather than emotional, readings of history. By allowing for an "ethics of difference" (Bleiker 2005), we seek to facilitate a more open debate about history, and to "democratize" the retelling of the past. Our pluralist and deliberative approach to discussing, recalling and recording history provides adeliberation-based "public space" (He 2004a) in which to achieve a minimal, mutually acceptable account of the war. This in turn fosters movement towards what Jürgen Habermas terms the most "valid" interpretation of history (see Suh 2007).The second step is empirical. We first map forms of discussion and debate on history, and then undertake an empirical testing to ascertain the degree to which civil society groups and citizens have been involved and deliberation has occurred. We highlight the Modern History of East Asia project, which entailed the production of a history textbook for use in China, Japan and South Korea.1 The project, which involved mainly NGOs and schoolteachers, sought to overcome the "liberation-invasion" dichotomy that characterizes the retelling of regional history (Hundt and Bleiker 2007). We contrast MHEA with less inclusive modes of dialogue—and in particular a dispute between China and South Korea that erupted at precisely the same time as the MHEA project was underway. By juxtaposing the Goguryeo-Gāogōulì dispute with the success of MHEA, this paper provides an account of factors leading to deliberative and non-deliberative dialogues, examines the limits and problems of the deliberative approach, and discusses the dynamic potential of a deliberative approach to dialogue. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines relative impacts of cultural socialization and interactions with government on support for democracy and regime legitimacy across eight Asian nations based upon surveys of populations in these countries. Results show that cultural socialization has more impact than Mishler and Rose observed in a study of Central Europe, but interactions with government also produce differences in attitudes. Inclusion of dummy variables indicates that identification of individual indicators allows substitutions of variables for country contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The belief that some forms of authoritarianism are superior to democracy in promoting economic development has historically been widespread in many academic and political circles. Today, certain East- and Southeast Asian countries are often used as the mo ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A large number of social capital articles have shown a positive relationship between social trust and democracy. However, applying social capital theory into East Asian countries which are entrenched in Confucian values is problematic in that previous discussions are mostly established on Western democracy settings. I argue that in society of Confucian culture, it is imperative to differentiate particular interpersonal trust (trust on in-groups, including family members and friends) from general interpersonal trust (trust on out-groups, mostly strangers). This is not only because they are substantively different types of social trust as defined by Confucianism, but also have diverse implications for democratic consolidation. Using Asian barometer's first wave of survey in eight East Asian regimes, I found that Confucianism generates particular interpersonal trust, but is negatively related to general interpersonal trust. Moreover, in contrast to conventional wisdom that interpersonal trust facilitates democracy, particular trust impedes citizens' democratic support; I also addressed the "Asian Value" debate and found a robust negative effect of Confucianism on civic culture, namely, Confucianism deters popular support for democracy in East Asian democracies by impeding their rejection of authoritarian values, if it is not necessarily an obstacle for citizens to embrace democratic values. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Whereas in the long term, the spread of liberal democracy and economic interdependence is expected to stabilize international politics, in the short term, the process of democratization may bring increased risk of violence. Understanding the stability of political transitions holds particular significance in East Asia, which anticipates democratization in China, and Korean unification. Whereas the democratization and war thesis expects instability in these transitions, theories of economic interdependence predict the opposite. Which theory has the greater explanatory power? To answer this question, this article tests a theory of democratization and conflict in three democratic transitions: Japan, Taiwan, and South Korea. These states--like the future cases--were pursuing export-led growth strategies, and thus faced potentially high costs from bellicose behavior. I test for both the occurrence of conflict and for the presence of the mechanisms through which conflict is predicted to occur (nationalism and "logrolling" by political coalitions). For the most part, evidence does not support the theory. Rather, these case studies suggest that economic interdependence stabilizes democratic transitions. This analysis suggests optimism for the future Korean and Chinese transitions; it supports theories of economic interdependence, and the strategies of engagement that they prescribe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article analyzes the 2001-2003 surveys to determine whether ordinary people of five East Asian new democracies actually perceive their new democracy as a lesser evil and whether lesser evil perceptions render them supportive of it to a greater extent than other regime perceptions. It explicates the notion of a lesser evil as a concept and distinguish it from other forms of so-called evil governance. The measurement of evil and good conceptions of democracy used to test empirically the Churchillian conceptualization of democracy is discussed.

The article examines the role of domestic constitutionalism in the achievement of economic development in East Asia. The political and economic experiences of East Asia highlight the importance of liberal constitutionalism in sustainable human and economic development. The key features of liberal constitutionalism are democracy, human rights, and the rule of law. These are important in achieving transparency and accountability.

The article examines the impact of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on democracy in recipient states. Overall, the IMF has a positive impact on democracy in countries that participated in its Extended Fund Facility program. However, consideration of the IMF impact within a regional context leads to mixed results. While IMF has had a strongly positive impact on democracy in Africa, the opposite has been observed in Latin America and East Asia.

The main purpose of this paper is to compare and understand Asian variations of corporatist democracy in the domain of public policy and systematic governance by comparing two outlier cases of Korea and Japan. While the Japanese pattern of corporatist governance has been widely known as 'corporatism without labor', the Korean experience can be characterized by the notion of 'corporatism without capital'. Such different paths of corporatist governance in these two countries of East Asia present distinctive institutional settings for dealing with labor in the different historical embeddedness. Two questions drive this comparative inquiry: what are the key factors explaining different paths of corporatist solutions in the two countries?; and why ahd how the government designed and developed the corporatist adaptation in dealing with workers? By using the historical-institutional approach as a main method for analysis, the paper will explore and compare the Korean and Japanese different developments of historical background, interactive processes of tripartite actors, and different outcomes of corporatist governance. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Several regions of the world, including Western and Eastern Europe as well as North and South America, have built regional institutions that promote market liberalization in conjunction with democratic governance or human rights protection. The integrative or ?Kantian? institutions take the form of either hard law (conditioning free trade arrangements upon good democratic or human rights practices) or soft law (affirming or recognizing democratic governance or human rights). The integrative institutions are believed to promote economic growth effectively and efficiently because healthy market operations require democratic institutions with the protection of individual liberty and property. In contrast, states in East Asia have repeatedly rejected the integrative approach in the inter-regional cooperative forums such as Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) and the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) and are likely to do the same in the intra-regional efforts at creating an East Asian Community. The Asian way of separating politics from economics engenders the criticism that Asian states lack democratic commitments, rekindling the controversy over the clash of civilizations. This paper seeks to clear up the popular mythology and find the reason behind the East Asian exceptionalism in institutional design by testing the following hypotheses: (1) the sovereignty hypothesis that Asian states, insistent on sovereignty and autonomy, are averse to a strong regional institution overarching politics and economics; (2) the cultural hypothesis that Asian states share the values placing high priority on collective identity and social order that diametrically oppose the liberal values of individual freedom and equity; and (3) the political-economic hypothesis that an East Asian developmental state aims toward maximizing growth by governing markets and requires the beliefs that the government administering industrial policy is long-lived and that it has low transaction costs of shifting governmental resources from inefficient to efficient firms (Liberal pluralism with frequent elite turnovers and decentralized policy processes will undermine the beliefs).Through the empirical analysis, the paper will reveal the ideas or social structures that drive the institutionalization of regional relations in contemporary East Asia. ..PAT.-Conference Proceeding [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates democratic consolidation in East Asia using recently collected survey data. We conceptualize consolidation as a mass-level phenomenon and measure consolidation by asking if citizens accept democracy as the only game in town. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the 1970s, countries in East Asia have achieved rapid economic development. In some countries, economic growth produced democracy. On the other hand, leaders of other countries have maintained a strong hold over power. In certain cases, this has lead to weak institutionalization of human rights. Through our research, we answer why some East Asian countries have achieved significant economic development while curtailing the degree of political human rights. The complete text of this paper can be requested from mandelafanon@hotmail.com [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Transitioned democracies often exhibit behaviors that mirror their authoritarian pasts. Despite the celebratory transitions, they often erode the values set up by the leading founding figures. This paper suggests that these transitioned democracies ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the international effects on the process of democratization and attempts to provide coherent and systematic accounts for why there are different external influences and how they have affected at different phases of democratization through a cross-regional comparison between East Asia and Central Europe. By focusing on process-oriented analysis and on interactions between external and internal factors, I argue that we should isolate international influences from common domestically dependent-level factors in national cases, in order to examine the exact effects of key explanatory factors. At the same time, the regional differences provide me enough variations to examine external effects with regional variables. I also challenge the mainstream “domestically biased” assumption that democratization is an exclusively domestic affair by arguing that external influences are a crucial part in democratic transition and consolidation especially through assessing regional and international impacts on regime change in the two regions. Furthermore, some scholars provide systemic and comprehensive approaches to explore the major mechanisms of the external impacts on regime change, but their generalizations are based on comparisons within only one geographic or cultural region. Thus, there are limits to the applicability and credibility of their general frameworks. Therefore, this study is a first effort to compare the international effects on democratization between the East (Confuciandom) and the West (Christendom). It attempts not only to refine current theoretical frameworks, but also to enhance the literature on democratization in breadth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]