Asian Democracy in World History

Taking a comparative approach, Alan T. Wood traces the evolution of democracy from its origins in prehistoric times and describes democratic growth in thirteen Asian countries from Japan in East Asia to Pakistan in South Asia and examines key issues such as:
* How does the democratic experience in Asia, in countries with unique and totalitarian political traditions, compare with democracies worldwide? * Is the aspiration to freedom universal or is it a product of western ideas and institutions?

Alan T. Wood is Professor of History at the University of Washington, Bothell. He has lived and studied in Asia for many years, and is the author of Limits to Autocracy: From Sung Neo-Confucianism to a Doctrine of Political Rights (1995) and What Does It Mean to be Human? A New Interpretation of Freedom in World History (2001).

Chapter 1 Introduction; Chapter 2 The rise of democracy in Europe; Chapter 3 Post-war democracies in Asia; Chapter 4 Later democracies in East Asia; Chapter 5 Later democracies in Southeast Asia; Chapter 6 Fragile democracies in South Asia; Chapter 7 Conclusion;