Message from the Director

Welcome to the Center for Asian Democracy!

The future of democracy across Asia remains an urgent global priority. The Varieties of Democracy (V-DEM) project continues to track significant weakening of democracy in various corners of Southeast, South and Central Asia. India, Afghanistan, and Hong Kong were among the world’s top-10 autocratizers in the 2023 V-DEM data, while Indonesia and South Korea showed troubling signs in spite of stronger overall democratic health. China-US competition further challenges democratic reforms.

At the same time, Asia remains home to some of the largest scale, vibrant democratic participation in the world. Highly competitive elections took place in several corners of Asia in 2024, with well over a billion individuals headed to the polls across the continent just in the year’s first six months, as several of CAD’s student reports document. Timor-Leste is among the world’s greatest democratizers in V-DEM’s 2023 data, while Malaysia and Nepal show marked improvement.

The mission of the Center for Asian Democracy, established in 2006, is to promote research, student opportunities, and community engagement that advances our understanding of democracy in this diverse region. The 2023-24 academic year saw CAD expand its extensive activities advancing scholarship, teaching and policy engagement.

We invite you to join us in the work ahead.

David Buckley, PhD
Director, Center for Asian Democracy