Challenge and Change in East Asia: Is Democracy the Only Game in Town?

How much progress have democracies in East Asia made toward consolidation? Approaching this question from a cultural perspective, our paper attempts to determine whether democracy has become “the only game in town” for a majority of the mass publics in six East Asian democratic countries: Japan, Korea, Mongolia, the Philippines, Taiwan, and Thailand. Using data culled from the first wave of the East Asia Barometer surveys conducted in these countries during the 2002-2003 period, we find that majorities of the Japanese, Korean, and Taiwanese people prefer democracy to its alternatives at the levels of both political regime and process. On the basis of this finding, we conclude that only these three East Asian democracies are well on their ways to becoming consolidated democracies.