More than at any other point in the century, democracy around the world is undergoing crisis and fragility. “How Democracy Is Under Threat Across the Globe,” a recent article published in The New York Times, indicates that the state of democracy has been declining consistently across the century as many democratic governments increasingly mutate into authoritarian and autocratic regimes. This phenomenon is widespread in the larger Asia region, where the number of countries backsliding into political authoritarianism outnumber those adopting democracy, depicting a consistent degradation and decline of political freedoms and liberties (Fisher, 2022). In this region, one-party states, military dictatorships, and illiberal quasi-democracies have extensively disrupted political development, undermined elections, and repressed the institutions and norms meant to bolster political liberties. For instance, countries such as Turkey, India, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand, Myanmar, and South Korea have regressed into outright authoritarianism of various forms, and electoral processes, political representation, accountability, and freedoms are under constant threat, as evidenced by the curtailing of political liberties and centralization of power. From this perspective, it is apparent that while democracy across the world is facing existential threats and progressively being replaced by political authoritarianism, this trend is more widespread in Asia than in any other region in the world.
The Degradation of Democracy and the Growth of Political Authoritarianism in Asia
Although democracy faces degradation and steady decline in many places worldwide, the trend is more prevalent and accelerating in Asia. According to Cooley (2015), Glasius (2018), and Lonnqvist et al. (2021), the levels of democracy globally have regressed significantly as political authoritarianism and autocratization gain momentum. Notably, the rising trend of political authoritarianism is much more pronounced and evident in Asia-Pacific and Central Asia regions, with countries such as Malaysia, the Philippines, South Korea, Thailand, Turkey, North Korea, and India experiencing diverse forms of democratic degradation. For instance, Turkey’s political system has undergone democratic backsliding, polarization, and electoral authoritarianism as the Justice and Development Party under the leadership of President Reccep Tayyip Erdogan seeks to consolidate power, undermine the integrity of elective politics, and curtail political liberties in the country (Castaldo, 2018; Arslantas & Kaiser, 2022; Selcuk & Hekimci, 2020). Indeed, the Turkish regime has seized control of political institutions, utilized state resources to suppress the opposition, and undermined electoral integrity. Notably, a significant proportion of these democratic regressions and erosions have occurred since the early 2000s through such forms of subtle degradation, including uneven political playing field, state-sponsored electoral malpractices, violation of civil liberties, and consolidation of power by eviscerating the judiciary and other institutions. The largely subdued judiciary then facilitates the regime’s assault and suppression of critics and opponents.
Similarly, in countries such as China, Vietnam, Singapore, Cambodia, Malaysia, and the Philippines, democratic quality has regressed over the years, with the regimes in different countries exercising varying levels of political autocracy and authoritarianism. For instance, in most of these countries, executive aggrandizement is widespread, and nominally democratic incumbents use their political power and influence to undertake practices that undermine democracy. In these countries, the constitutional checks on the executive powers have been downgraded substantially, civil and political rights and freedoms curtailed, and the independence of the media eroded. This phenomenon is depicted in countries such as Thailand, where Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra managed to progressively erode the checks on executive power, marginalized opposition forces, and manipulated the rules of electoral competition to deepen the incumbency permanency.
Further, such constitutionally anchored freedoms of speech and media are routinely violated by the government with impunity. According to Gamso (2021), authoritarian regimes format and control messages disseminated by the media as one of the strategies through which the population is further dominated and subjugated. For instance, In China, the media is strictly controlled by the ruling Chinese Communist Party, a phenomenon replicated in Singapore, North Korea, Turkey, Malaysia, and Cambodia, where the respective governments have distinctively high control and regulatory effectiveness over the media through repressive security laws, censorships, and influencing of the disseminated messages to ostensibly ensure political legitimacy, vanquish alternative political ideologies, and isolate and silence opposition (Coskun, 2020). Indeed, these suppressive practices intended to curtail the independence of the media, undermine free speech, and extinguish alternative political ideologies are more prevalent in Asia than in any other region of the world due to the rising tide of political authoritarianism and regressing democracy in multiple countries in that region.
Moreover, the status of electoral democracy in a significant proportion of Asian countries has worsened over time and fallen below democratic thresholds. Indeed, in most countries, electoral integrity has been supplanted by elective or competitive authoritarianism. Consequently, there is a deceptive outward impression of competitive electoral politics, but in reality, the electoral systems and processes are rigged and abused to confer unfair advantages to pro-regime competitors and political forces instead of excluding the opposition or their voters from the electoral arena. For instance, in countries such as Turkey, China, the Philippines, Singapore, and Malaysia, the existing democratic institutions are merely imitative and are designed to facilitate the perpetuation of many systemic violations of liberal democratic practices and norms to ensure that the incumbents retain power and their authoritarian rule is legitimized. Parties such as Barisan Nasional in Singapore, the Justice and Development Party in Turkey, the Chinese Communist Party, the United Malays National Organization in Malaysia, PDP–Laban in the Philippines, and the Cambodian People’s Party undertake regular elections in which opposition parties often stand chances of defeating the incumbent, but electoral malpractices, violations of electoral laws, and abuse of the system undercut their ability to effectively challenge the incumbent. To illustrate this view, China, Malaysia, and Singapore have been ruled by the same parties for decades since the electoral environment ensures that these parties are less vulnerable to opposition challenges. According to Coskun (2020), elections in many of these Asian countries are rituals, lack electoral value, and are merely undertaken to legitimize the authoritarian regimes without explicitly rejecting political plurality.
The evisceration of the judiciary and the subsequent erosion of its independence are common occurrences in these countries, and judicial institutions are extensively under the control and influence of ruling parties. For instance, the Turkish and Chinese judiciaries have been criticized for their lack of meaningful independence in their decision-making and the numerous internal mechanisms within the judiciary itself, which limit the independence of individual judicial officers. This evisceration of the judiciary is essential in political authoritarianism since the regimes use the court systems to frustrate their opponents and punish dissent. From this perspective, political authoritarianism has gained momentum over the years and progressively replaced democracy in Asia.
Conclusion
Although democracy is experiencing unprecedented pressure and challenges globally, the pace of political authoritarianism is more pronounced and accelerated in Asia. Countries such as Turkey, Thailand, Singapore, China, the Philippines, Malaysia, and Cambodia have steadily lost their democratic values, particularly fundamental freedoms and rights, liberal norms, and other tenets of democracy. Indeed, the growing tide of political authoritarianism has disrupted political development in these countries and witnessed widespread events of opposition suppression, erosion of media independence, evisceration of the judiciary, loss of electoral integrity, and consolidation of powers by the ruling regime. In this regard, the backsliding of democracy and the rise of political authoritarianism is a prominent feature in the larger Asia region and is fast gaining momentum.
References
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