ABSTRACT
Generalizing the achievement of East Asia for democracy and development promises emancipatory observations and projects hidden by Occidentalism. The East Asian experience, in practice as well as in theory, in China as in Japan, is central to the global moment. The democratization of East Asia is best understood as part of a global process. Democratization presupposes a taming and neutralization of the elite's anti-democratic military and security forces. The lesson of Western conventional wisdom is that first the market should be freed so that individuals who clash become second nature and then democratization will be easy. Foreign factors—defeat in war, conquest, allies, foreign pressure, foreign models—often have large impacts on democratization. The vicissitudes of democratization are masked by the notion of a peculiarly reasonable, secular, and individualistic Western culture. The politicization of ethnic, regional, religious, and other cultural identities can challenge democracy anywhere. Democratization is a way to build political consensus through coalition to resolve a political crisis.
