Examining the link between democracy, social policy, and inclusive development in South‐East Asia

This research investigates the impact of democracy on inclusive development and mainly addresses the question “Does democracy matter in the delivery of larger and more effective social policies that improve inclusive development?” The four cases selected to empirically analyze the relationship among three variables (democracy, social policy, and inclusive development) were Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, and the Philippines. The three main variables were modeled and analyzed by partial least squares–structural equation modeling technique. The finding revealed that social policy was one of the potential variables linking democracy and inclusive development, especially when the development of democratic institution runs stably.