# Democracy in Asia

Democracy in Asia can be comparatively assessed according to various definitions of democracy. According to the V-Dem Democracy indices, the Asian countries with the highest democracy scores in year 2023 were Taiwan, Japan, Cyprus, Israel, and South Korea, meanwhile the Asian countries with lowest democracy scores in 2023 are Saudi Arabia, China and Afghanistan. Democratic backsliding can be observed in parts of Asia. The V-Dem Democracy Report identified for the year 2023 East Timor as a case of stand-alone democratization and Thailand and Maldives as cases of U-Turn democratization.

## By country

* Democracy in Afghanistan
* Democracy in Bangladesh
* Demoracy in Bhutan
* Democracy in China
** Democracy in Hong Kong
* Democracy in India
* Democracy in Iraq
* Democracy in Pakistan

## Measures of democracy

The table below shows Asian countries scored on V-Dem Democracy indices for year 2024.
V-Dem Democracy Indices :
| Country | Democracy Indices | Democracy Indices | Democracy Component Indices | Democracy Component Indices | Democracy Component Indices | Democracy Component Indices |
| Country | Electoral | Liberal | Liberal | Egalitarian | Participatory | Deliberative |
| Japan | 0.82 | 0.734 | 0.902 | 0.934 | 0.562 | 0.908 |
| Taiwan | 0.8 | 0.7 | 0.878 | 0.874 | 0.748 | 0.844 |
| Cyprus | 0.774 | 0.651 | 0.839 | 0.902 | 0.566 | 0.831 |
| East Timor | 0.733 | 0.549 | 0.72 | 0.569 | 0.552 | 0.715 |
| South Korea | 0.729 | 0.631 | 0.872 | 0.856 | 0.61 | 0.809 |
| Israel | 0.715 | 0.617 | 0.869 | 0.808 | 0.601 | 0.773 |
| Nepal | 0.669 | 0.522 | 0.76 | 0.585 | 0.583 | 0.611 |
| Sri Lanka | 0.664 | 0.486 | 0.699 | 0.671 | 0.594 | 0.617 |
| Armenia | 0.623 | 0.414 | 0.61 | 0.802 | 0.411 | 0.688 |
| Maldives | 0.564 | 0.423 | 0.714 | 0.584 | 0.48 | 0.705 |
| Bhutan | 0.561 | 0.454 | 0.783 | 0.826 | 0.541 | 0.899 |
| Malaysia | 0.517 | 0.362 | 0.643 | 0.709 | 0.538 | 0.673 |
| Mongolia | 0.496 | 0.389 | 0.736 | 0.653 | 0.402 | 0.746 |
| Indonesia | 0.483 | 0.326 | 0.606 | 0.538 | 0.592 | 0.811 |
| Georgia | 0.48 | 0.328 | 0.615 | 0.726 | 0.507 | 0.751 |
| Papua New Guinea | 0.461 | 0.384 | 0.784 | 0.461 | 0.514 | 0.507 |
| Philippines | 0.435 | 0.308 | 0.633 | 0.314 | 0.571 | 0.526 |
| Singapore | 0.414 | 0.343 | 0.752 | 0.805 | 0.132 | 0.742 |
| India | 0.398 | 0.291 | 0.635 | 0.425 | 0.521 | 0.629 |
| Thailand | 0.389 | 0.289 | 0.646 | 0.483 | 0.356 | 0.371 |
| Iraq | 0.351 | 0.228 | 0.524 | 0.459 | 0.438 | 0.594 |
| Lebanon | 0.348 | 0.207 | 0.463 | 0.379 | 0.421 | 0.557 |
| Kyrgyzstan | 0.333 | 0.183 | 0.411 | 0.619 | 0.397 | 0.373 |
| Pakistan | 0.313 | 0.199 | 0.48 | 0.223 | 0.499 | 0.529 |
| Kuwait | 0.292 | 0.266 | 0.716 | 0.613 | 0.148 | 0.433 |
| Turkey | 0.288 | 0.117 | 0.255 | 0.539 | 0.422 | 0.182 |
| Jordan | 0.273 | 0.274 | 0.772 | 0.577 | 0.302 | 0.876 |
| Kazakhstan | 0.272 | 0.134 | 0.326 | 0.539 | 0.291 | 0.5 |
| Uzbekistan | 0.215 | 0.078 | 0.19 | 0.435 | 0.196 | 0.422 |
| Palestine (West Bank) | 0.214 | 0.117 | 0.323 | 0.541 | 0.469 | 0.177 |
| Bangladesh | 0.201 | 0.068 | 0.2 | 0.323 | 0.243 | 0.293 |
| Cambodia | 0.186 | 0.056 | 0.133 | 0.206 | 0.207 | 0.183 |
| Azerbaijan | 0.175 | 0.054 | 0.133 | 0.34 | 0.102 | 0.093 |
| Tajikistan | 0.174 | 0.05 | 0.12 | 0.197 | 0.144 | 0.136 |
| Vietnam | 0.174 | 0.124 | 0.382 | 0.614 | 0.499 | 0.659 |
| Oman | 0.174 | 0.14 | 0.443 | 0.571 | 0.388 | 0.189 |
| Russia | 0.172 | 0.056 | 0.143 | 0.371 | 0.376 | 0.109 |
| Hong Kong | 0.169 | 0.133 | 0.421 | 0.736 | 0.142 | 0.15 |
| Iran | 0.167 | 0.092 | 0.275 | 0.473 | 0.092 | 0.324 |
| Turkmenistan | 0.149 | 0.033 | 0.076 | 0.289 | 0.075 | 0.039 |
| Syria | 0.145 | 0.054 | 0.155 | 0.23 | 0.194 | 0.085 |
| Laos | 0.134 | 0.102 | 0.339 | 0.428 | 0.386 | 0.164 |
| Yemen | 0.127 | 0.047 | 0.142 | 0.087 | 0.166 | 0.132 |
| Bahrain | 0.124 | 0.052 | 0.158 | 0.385 | 0.115 | 0.158 |
| United Arab Emirates | 0.103 | 0.078 | 0.27 | 0.45 | 0.086 | 0.298 |
| Palestine (Gaza) | 0.095 | 0.053 | 0.18 | 0.405 | 0.212 | 0.113 |
| Qatar | 0.087 | 0.08 | 0.284 | 0.395 | 0.105 | 0.387 |
| North Korea | 0.083 | 0.014 | 0.033 | 0.31 | 0.153 | 0.016 |
| Myanmar | 0.083 | 0.016 | 0.041 | 0.21 | 0.34 | 0.195 |
| Afghanistan | 0.081 | 0.016 | 0.044 | 0.077 | 0.027 | 0.073 |
| China | 0.073 | 0.036 | 0.125 | 0.302 | 0.1 | 0.227 |
| Saudi Arabia | 0.015 | 0.047 | 0.187 | 0.449 | 0.081 | 0.258 |