Introduction

This chapter explains the variation among the postures of major religious organizations in Asia concerning their political involvement in democratic politics. The literature of Asian democratization initially focused on the role of the middle class in democratic fermentation, the interaction between the political opposition and the military or the ruling party, and the relevance of labor and capital to the transformation of the political arena. Protestant churches in Korea, the Presbyterian Church in Taiwan, the Catholic Church in the Philippines, some Buddhist movements in Indonesia, and personality-based Buddhist movements in Thailand were instrumental in activating democratic forces. A number of Protestant churches in Korea had to weather suppression by military authoritarian regimes, even when the ruler happened to be Christian. Due to South Korea's dependence on security support from the United States and to the conservative bent of South Korean Christians, the authoritarian regime did not attempt to manipulate the churches as it did the Buddhist temples.