ABSTRACT
This chapter begins by discussing how to evaluate both democracy and efforts to improve or undermine its practice. It then assesses groups of countries in Asia where noteworthy changes (both positive and negative) have occurred in the last ten years. The chapter offers some explanations for why it seems that democracy is in decline (to use Diamond and Plattner's phrase), why this might be happening, and what reasons we might have for optimism or pessimism looking forward. Several Asian countries have demonstrated democratic stability and durability: South Korea, Taiwan, Japan, India, Mongolia, Australia, and New Zealand are all firmly democratic. Other countries where there has been little political change in one direction or another include a list of 'partly free' states: the Philippines, Singapore, and Bhutan as well as 'not free' states where rights and freedoms have neither improved nor worsened, including Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, and North Korea.
