ABSTRACT
The Indo-Pacific region covers a huge land mass and is home to some of the world’s oldest, largest and newest democracies. Global indices that measure both the spread and quality of democracy clearly show that worldwide while the number of democratic countries has increased democratic erosion is also on the rise. Using the huge body of literature on democracy, democratisation, democratic consolidation and democratic quality, this chapter gives an overview of the democratic trajectory of the countries of the region. Focus will be on countries like Japan, India, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Cambodia, Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea etc. Most of them also share a colonial past. While all of them can be considered reasonably consolidated using Huntington’s yardstick of having undergone two peaceful and orderly turnovers of power by democratic means the picture becomes complicated when one focuses on quality of democracy, which can be evaluated using Diamond and Morlino’s eight dimensions - the rule of law, participation, competition, vertical accountability, horizontal accountability, freedom, equality, and responsiveness.
