Christopher Carothersis an associated scholar at the University of Pennsylvania’s Center for the Study of Contemporary China and the author of East Asia’s Troubled Democracies: How Illiberal Trends Are Reshaping Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan (2026).
Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan are typically seen as democratic stalwarts, on par with older established democracies. But all three countries face growing pressures that threaten its political foundations.
Most competitive authoritarian regimes have proven strikingly unstable over recent decades. Quasi-democratic institutions, rather than serving authoritarians as useful instruments of manipulation, have frequently contributed to the breakdown of these systems.
