The end of ‘Asian' values and the spread of democracy in south-east and north Asia 1

Democracy has made a more hesitant start in eastern Asia compared with the western side of the continent. The countries that were either part of, or closely linked to, the Soviet Union have not had a uniform political evolution. As mentioned earlier, some of the early democratisers were Mongolia and the Kyrgyz Republic. In both cases, democratic attributes from their own history were evoked to nationalise the enterprise of political change.