Recently, Freedom House, a non-profit organisation that assesses democracy freedom, and human rights, reported that globally democracy has been in decline for the past 18 years. Moreover, this has been most evident in the West. According to a study published by Rand Corporation, a U.S. government supported think tank, Asia is the only place in the world where “democracy scores” have improved.

Further, according to studies conducted by the well-known Pew Research Centre, residents of Asian countries report being satisfied with democracy versus being not satisfied by a 58 to 39 percent margin. In Europe the numbers are equal. The spread between Asia and Europe is even bigger when citizens are asked if their governments operate for the benefit of all or for a few.

Why has this happened?

In the late 1800s, Alexander Fraser Tytler, a professor at the University of Edinburgh, wrote that democracy is always temporary, and it goes through cycles: from bondage to spiritual faith, from faith to great courage, from courage to liberty, from liberty to abundance, from abundance to selfishness, from selfishness to complacency, from complacency to apathy, from apathy back to bondage.

He also asserted that citizens in countries in the late phases of democracy vote themselves gifts from the public treasury, which translates into corruption and loose fiscal policies that cause democracy to collapse to be followed by dictatorship.

He notes that the average life span of democracies is 200 years.

Other evidence confirms Tytler was correct…

First off, a country’s economic development was and is an essential contributing factor to building democracy and sustaining it. Good growth translates into both. Since Asian nations’ economic development has been more recent and more robust this means it is not so much a zero-sum game for its residents and is more equitable.

India,........

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