Popular Value Perceptions and Institutional Preference for Democracy in “Confucian” East Asia

A democratic recession coupled with China’s rise has reopened the Asian values debate between modernizers in favor of Western liberal democracy and traditional adherents to Confucianism. Using data from the third wave of the Asian Barometer Survey (2010–2012), we reexamine this debate by considering the implications of Confucian values for democratic orientations in seven societies: Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, mainland China, and Vietnam. Our findings support the argument that, although traditionally Confucian societies have developed a belief system and culture different from the West, such a system does not preclude the emergence and divergence of democracy. Indeed, East Asians tend to define democracy in terms of social equity and good governance (performance-distributive democracy) rather than liberty and democratic procedures (liberty-procedural democracy).