Abstract
The Asian values thesis describes the cultural exceptionalism and alternative political development of East Asia. This study used four rounds of Asian Barometer Survey (ABS) datasets (spanning 2001–2016) to empirically examine the effects of Asian values on citizens’ support for democracy in four East Asian societies—mainland China, Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan—based on the theoretical distinction between the private and political spheres in which Asian values operate. The analysis produced three major findings. First, no remarkable gap exists between the citizens of China and those of other East Asian societies in terms of Asian values in the private sphere. However, Asian values in the political sphere are prevalent in China, while citizens in the other three societies have abandoned them. Second, supporting democracy is not incompatible with accepting the family and social ethics implied by Asian values, whereas Asian values in the political sphere have significantly negative associations with preference for democracy. Third, although most citizens in East Asia support democracy, the strongly positive evaluation of its suitability for local societies observed at the beginning of the twenty-first century has weakened in the region over the last 20 years.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Almond, G. (1956). Comparative political systems. The Journal of Politics, 18(3), 391–409.
Bakar, O. (1998). Asian values, or universal values championed by Asia? Implications for East-West Understanding. Social Semiotics, 8(2/3), 169–176.
Chan, J. (1997). An alternative view. Journal of Democracy, 8(2), 35–48.
Chang, W.-C. (2012). Eastern religions and attitude toward direct Democracy in Taiwan. Politics and Religion, 5, 555–583.
Chong, A. (2004). Singaporean foreign policy and the Asian values debate, 1992–2000: Reflections on an experiment in soft power. The Pacific Review, 17(1), 95–133.
Chu, Y-h and Chang Y-T. (2001). Culture Shift and Regime Legitimacy: Comparing Mainland China, Taiwan and Hong Kong. In Shiping Hua (Eds.), Chinese Political Culture 1989–2000, pp. 320–348. New York: M. E. Sharpe.
Chu, G., & Yu, Y. (1993). The Great Wall in Ruins: Communication and Cultural Change in China. State University of New York Press.
Chu, G C. (2001). The changing concept of zhong (loyalty): Emerging new Chinese political culture. In Shiping Hua (Eds.), Chinese Political Culture 1989–2000, pp. 42–69. Armonk, New York: M. E. Sharpe.
Dalton, R. J., & Ong, N.-N.T. (2005). Authority orientations and democratic attitudes: A test of the Asian values hypothesis. Japanese Journal of Political Science, 6(2), 1–21.
Dalton, R., & Shin, D. C. (2006). Citizens, Democracy and Markets around the Pacific Rim. Oxford University Press.
Dalton, R. J., Shin, D. C., & Jou, W. (2007). Understanding democracy: Data from unlikely places. Journal of Democracy, 18(4), 142–156.
Diamond, L., & Plattner, M. F. (2008). How People View Democracy. Johns Hopkins University Press.
Elster, J. (1989). The Cement of Society: A Study of Social Order. Cambridge University Press.
Emmerson, D. K. (1995). Region and recalcitrance: Rethinking democracy through Southeast Asia. The Pacific Review, 8(2), 223–248.
Fetzer, J. S., & Soper, C. (2010). Confucian values and elite support for liberal democracy in Taiwan: The perils of priestly religion. Politics and Religion, 3, 495–517.
Flanagan, S. C. (1982). Measuring value change in advanced industrial societies: A rejoinder to Inglehart. Comparative Political Studies, 15(1), 99–128.
Flanagan, S., & Lee, A.-R. (2000). Value change and democratic reform in Japan and Korea. Comparative Political Studies, 33(6), 626–659.
Friedman, E. (1994). Democratization: Generalizing the East Asian Experiences. In Edward Friedman (Eds.), The Politics of Democratization: Generalizing East Asian Experiences, pp. 19–60. Boulder, CO: Westview.
Fukuyama, F. (1992). The End of History and the Last Man. Free Press.
Fukuyama, F. (1998). Asian values and the Asian crisis. Commentary, 105(2), 26.
Hua, S. (2001). Chinese Political Culture 1989–2000. M. E. Sharpe.
Huntington, S. P. (1991). The Third Wave: Democratization in the Late Twentieth Century. University of Oklahoma Press.
Ikeda, K., & Richey, S. (2012). Social Networks and Japanese Democracy: The Beneficial Impact of Interpersonal Communication in East Asia. Routledge.
Inglehart, R., & Welzel, C. (2005). Modernization, Cultural Change, and Democracy: The Human Development Sequence. Cambridge University Press.
Inglehart, R. (2003). How solid is mass support for democracy—nd how can we measure it? PS: Political Science & Politics 36(1): 51–57.
Inoguchi, T & Newman E. (1997). Asian Values and democracy in Asia. Presented at Shizuoka Asia-Pacific Forum: The Future of the Asia-Pacific Region, on March 28, 1997 at Hamamatsu, Shizuoka, Japan.
Jacobs, B. J. (2007). Taiwan and South Korea: Comparing East Asia’s two “third-wave” democracies. Issues & Studies, 43(4), 227–260.
Jamal, A., & Tessler, M. A. (2008). Attitudes in the Arab world. Journal of Democracy, 19(1), 97–110.
Ji, L.-J., Peng, K., & Nisbett, R. (2000). Culture, control and perception of relations in the environment. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 78(5), 943–955.
Kim, D. J. (1994). Is culture destiny? The myth of Asia’s anti-democratic values. Foreign Affairs, 73(6), 189–194.
Kim, S. Y. (2010). Do Asian values exist? Empirical tests of the four dimensions of Asian values. Journal of East Asian Studies, 10(2), 315–344.
Kitayama, S., & Cohen, D. (2007). Handbook of Cultural Psychology. Guilford.
Knowles, R. T. (2015). Asian values and democratic citizenship: Exploring attitudes among South Korean eighth graders using data from the ICCS Asian Regional Module. Asia Pacific Journal of Education, 35(2), 191–212.
Kon, T. (1993). The ten values that undergird East Asian strength and success. International Herald Tribune, December 11–12.
Langguth, G. (2003). Asian values revisited. Asia Europe Journal, 1(1), 25–42.
Linz, J., & Stepan, A. (1996). Problems of Democratic Transition and Consolidation: Southern Europe, South America, and Post-Communist Europe. Johns Hopkins University Press.
Lu, J., & Shi, T. (2015). The battle of ideas and discourses before democratic transition: Different democratic conceptions in authoritarian China. International Political Science Review, 36(1), 20–41.
Masuda, T., Gonzalez, R., Kwan, L., & Nisbett, R. (2008). Culture and aesthetic preference: Comparing the attention to context of East Asians and Americans. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 34(9), 1260–1275.
Nathan, A. (1986). Chinese Democracy. University of California Press.
Nisbett, R. (2003). The Geography of Thought: Why We Think the Way We Do. Free Press.
Öjendal, J., & Antlöv, H. (1998). Asian values and its political consequences: Is Cambodia the first domino? The Pacific Review, 11(4), 525–540.
Park, C.-M., & Shin, D. C. (2006). Do Asian values deter popular support for democracy in South Korea? Asian Survey, 46(3), 341–361.
Pye, L. W. (1985). Asian Power and Politics: The Cultural Dimensions of Authority. Belknap Press.
Ridley, D. (2020). The Mystery of Wealth: Capitalism. Democracy. Rule of Law. Warsaw: Sciendo.
Schmidt, C. E. (2018). Values and democracy in East Asia and Europe: A comparison. Asian Journal of German and European Studies, 3, 10. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40856-018-0034-9
Sen, A. (1999). Development as Freedom. Oxford University Press.
Sen, A. (1997). Human rights and Asian values. New Republic, July14–21, pp. 33–40.
Shen, F., & Tsui, L. (2018). Revisiting the Asian values thesis: An empirical study of Asian values, internet use, and support for freedom of expression in 11 societies. Asian Survey, 58(3), 535–556.
Shi, T., & Lu, J. (2010). The shadow of cultural traditions and different understandings of democracy. Journal of Democracy, 21(4), 123–130.
Shin, D. C. (2012). Confucianism and Democratization in East Asia. Cambridge University Press.
Subramaniam, S. (2000). The Asian values debate: Implications for the spread of liberal democracy. Asian Affairs an American Review, 27(1), 19–35.
Thompson, M. R. (2001). Whatever happened to Asian values. Journal of Democracy, 12(4), 154–165.
Tu, W.-m. (1993). Confucian traditions in East Asian modernity: Exploring moral authority and economic power in Japan and the four mini-dragons. Bulletin of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 46(8), 5–19.
Vatikiotis, M. R. (1996). Political Change in Southeast Asia: Trimming the Banyan Tree. Routledge.
Welzel, C. (2011). The Asian values thesis revisited: Evidence from the World Values Surveys. Japanese Journal of Political Science, 12(1), 1–31.
Welzel, C. (2012). The myth of Asian exceptionalism: Response to Bomhoff and Gu. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 43(7), 1039–1054.
Yao, X. (2000). An Introduction to Confucianism. Cambridge University Press.
Yung, B. (2012). Road to good governance and modernization in Asia: Asian values and/or democracy? Journal of Asian Public Policy, 5(3), 266–276.
Zakaria, F. (1994). Culture is destiny: A conversation with Lee Kuan Yew. Foreign Affairs, 73(2), 109–126.
Zhai, Y. (2017a). Do Confucian values deter Chinese citizens’ support for democracy? Politics and Religion, 10(2), 261–285.
Zhai, Y. (2017b). Values of deference to authority in Japan and China. International Journal of Comparative Sociology, 58(2), 120–139.
Zhai, Y. (2018). Traditional values and political trust in China. Journal of Asian and African Studies, 53(3), 350–365.
Zhai, Y. (2019). Popular democratic perception matters for political trust in authoritarian regimes. Politics, 39(4), 411–429.
Zhai, Y. (2020). Popular perceptions of democracy in China: Characteristics and longitudinal changes. Asian Survey, 60(3), 557–582.
Acknowledgements
The author would like to thank anonymous referees for their valuable comments and suggestions on earlier drafts of this article.
Funding
This research was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) through grant ref: 71874109.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Conflict of interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
Additional information
Publisher's Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Appendix
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Zhai, Y. Values Change and Support for Democracy in East Asia. Soc Indic Res 160, 179–198 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-021-02807-3
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-021-02807-3