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Inequality and

Democratic Politics in East Asia*

Chong-Min
Park**

Inequality and Democratic Politics in East Asia 1

I

Since the last decade of the twentieth century, much of East Asia has

experienced two significant changes in politics and economy: democratic transition
and rising income inequality. When “the third wave of democratization” reached East
Asia in the late 1980s (Huntington 1991), there was only one democracy in the

region, Japan. The first third-wave democracy in the region emerged in the Philippines
in 1986 when the people power revolution overthrew its long-standing dictatorship.

Since then, the Philippines has maintained an electoral democracy except for a brief
period of its breakdown in the late 2000s. South Korea’s democratic transition started
with the adoption of a new constitution and an immediate presidential election in

1987 (Freedom House, various years). Taiwan gradually transitioned to democracy by

* For presentation at the 21st KPI Congress on “Bridging the Inequality Gap and Nurturing Quality
of Democracy,” Bangkok, November 1-3, 2019
** Korea University [email protected]

1 This is drawn largely from my work which appears in Park and Uslaner (2020).