ABSTRACT
The nexus between democracy and stability has received far less attention than other drivers of East Asia’s regional order, such as the balance of power, economic interdependence, and regional institutions.2 In the academic world, scholars studying democratization in East Asia have been more concerned with exploring the domestic context of and the factors behind democratization (such as the impact of economic growth, the role of the middle class, and the functions of a largely national civil society) than with its external underpinnings and consequences (Acharya 1999; Lynch 2006: 5).3
