From Development to Democracy: The Transformations of Modern Asia

by Dan Slater

THE QUESTION OF democratic prospects over the long term hinges on the questions of political stability and economic development. Wherever democracy cannot contribute to stability, it cannot be expected to last. Wherever democracy cannot be expected to coexist with economic development, it cannot be expected to be introduced in the first place. Democracy may very well be a universal value, in that people everywhere would generally prefer to be governed democratically than autocratically, all else being equal.1 But nowhere in the world is democracy the ultimate value, in the sense that people anywhere can be expected to prioritize democracy over a peaceful and prosperous way of life. Without peace, prosperity, and stability, democracy is fragile, as we have witnessed in recent decades, with more and more of the democratic gains made during the Third Wave in the latter half of the twentieth century giving way to democratic recession in so much of the world.