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Democracy in Asia

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V-Dem Electoral Democracy Index in Asia for year 2025[1]

Democracy in Asia can be comparatively assessed[2] according to various definitions of democracy.[3] According to the V-Dem Democracy indices, the Asian countries with the highest democracy scores in year 2025 were Taiwan, Japan, South Korea, Cyprus and Sri Lanka, meanwhile the Asian countries with lowest democracy scores in 2023 are Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Afghanistan.[4] Democratic backsliding can be observed in parts of Asia.[5] The V-Dem Democracy Report identified for the year 2025 Timor Leste, Thailand and Sri Lanka as a cases of ongoing democratization.[1]

By country

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Measures of democracy

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The table below shows Asian countries scored on V-Dem Democracy indices for year 2024.[1][6][7]

V-Dem Democracy Indices
Country Democracy Indices Democracy Component Indices
Electoral Liberal Liberal Egalitarian Participatory Deliberative
 Japan 0.82 0.73 0.9 0.94 0.56 0.9
 South Korea 0.82 0.74 0.91 0.87 0.61 0.94
 Taiwan 0.8 0.7 0.89 0.88 0.8 0.86
 Sri Lanka 0.78 0.61 0.76 0.71 0.61 0.78
 East Timor 0.74 0.55 0.71 0.58 0.56 0.7
 Israel 0.69 0.59 0.85 0.78 0.6 0.71
 Nepal 0.66 0.5 0.75 0.58 0.62 0.54
 Armenia 0.61 0.37 0.53 0.78 0.42 0.55
 Bhutan 0.57 0.46 0.79 0.81 0.55 0.9
 Maldives 0.56 0.42 0.72 0.61 0.49 0.72
 Mongolia 0.54 0.42 0.76 0.66 0.43 0.83
 Malaysia 0.5 0.36 0.64 0.71 0.53 0.66
 Indonesia 0.46 0.3 0.56 0.45 0.57 0.74
 Singapore 0.43 0.36 0.77 0.79 0.14 0.75
 Thailand 0.42 0.31 0.67 0.49 0.33 0.35
 Lebanon 0.42 0.27 0.54 0.5 0.42 0.76
 Philippines 0.39 0.29 0.64 0.31 0.56 0.54
 India 0.38 0.26 0.57 0.41 0.54 0.57
 Iraq 0.37 0.22 0.48 0.41 0.49 0.62
 Kyrgyzstan 0.31 0.18 0.42 0.59 0.37 0.32
 Pakistan 0.3 0.18 0.42 0.26 0.47 0.43
 Turkey 0.29 0.11 0.23 0.54 0.4 0.13
 Jordan 0.28 0.27 0.76 0.56 0.31 0.74
 Kazakhstan 0.26 0.13 0.33 0.56 0.25 0.5
 Uzbekistan 0.22 0.08 0.19 0.44 0.2 0.45
 Bangladesh 0.2 0.12 0.34 0.33 0.28 0.48
 Cambodia 0.18 0.05 0.12 0.24 0.15 0.22
 Oman 0.18 0.14 0.44 0.56 0.37 0.21
 Azerbaijan 0.17 0.05 0.13 0.39 0.1 0.07
 Russia 0.17 0.06 0.15 0.41 0.39 0.16
 Iran 0.16 0.1 0.32 0.5 0.1 0.28
 Tajikistan 0.16 0.04 0.11 0.17 0.16 0.12
 Turkmenistan 0.15 0.03 0.08 0.27 0.08 0.06
 Vietnam 0.15 0.1 0.33 0.55 0.56 0.62
 Bahrain 0.14 0.06 0.19 0.43 0.16 0.18
 Kuwait 0.14 0.13 0.43 0.59 0.15 0.6
 Laos 0.14 0.11 0.36 0.38 0.4 0.18
 Syria 0.13 0.05 0.17 0.43 0.18 0.59
 Yemen 0.13 0.04 0.12 0.09 0.23 0.11
 United Arab Emirates 0.1 0.08 0.26 0.44 0.09 0.29
 North Korea 0.08 0.01 0.03 0.34 0.15 0.02
 Myanmar 0.08 0.02 0.04 0.2 0.14 0.12
 China 0.07 0.04 0.14 0.29 0.12 0.23
 Afghanistan 0.07 0.02 0.06 0.05 0.18 0.03
 Qatar 0.03 0.09 0.35 0.39 0.13 0.47
 Saudi Arabia 0.02 0.05 0.18 0.45 0.1 0.28

See also

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References

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  1. 1 2 3 "Democracy Report 2026, Unraveling The Democratic Era?" (PDF). Retrieved 2026-03-17.
  2. ↑ Geissel, Brigitte; Kneuer, Marianne; Lauth, Hans-Joachim (2016). "Measuring the quality of democracy: Introduction". International Political Science Review. 37 (5). Sage Publications: 571–579. doi:10.1177/0192512116669141. ISSN 0192-5121. JSTOR 26556872. S2CID 151808737. Retrieved 2023-04-03.
  3. ↑ Greenwood, Shannon (2022-12-06). "Appendix A: Classifying democracies". Pew Research Center's Global Attitudes Project. Retrieved 2022-12-27.
  4. ↑ V-Dem Institute (2023). "The V-Dem Dataset". Retrieved 14 October 2023.
  5. ↑ Croissant, Aurel; Haynes, Jeffrey (2021). "Democratic regression in Asia: Introduction". Democratization. 28: 1–21. doi:10.1080/13510347.2020.1851203.
  6. ↑ "The V-Dem Dataset – V-Dem". V-Dem. V-Dem Institute. 2025. Retrieved 14 March 2025.
  7. ↑ Coppedge, Michael; Gerring, John; Glynn, Adam; Knutsen, Carl Henrik; Lindberg, Staffan I.; et al. (January 2020). Varieties of Democracy: Measuring Two Centuries of Political Change. Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/9781108347860. ISBN 9781108347860.
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