ABSTRACT
Decades of rapid economic development in Pacifi c Asia have led to a diverse pattern of political development. Instead of moving towards the so-called Japanese-style illiberal democracy, countries such as Taiwan, South Korea and Thailand have all made great strides towards liberal democracy. Furthermore, the Confucian rhetoric, which was once used by authoritarian regimes in Taiwan and South Korea to justify their method of ruling, has also been discarded by new generations of politicians committed to democratic values (D. J. Kim 1994; Klintworth 1995). At the same time, however, there has been little progress in democratisation in Singapore and Malaysia. If anything, authoritarianism in these two countries has actually increased rather than decreased over the decades of rapid economic development. Finally, democratic transition in Indonesia, precipitated by the 1997-8 fi nancial crisis that brought down the Suharto regime, has been marred by the eruption of ethnic strife that has gripped the country since. So why such a varied pattern of political development in the region?
