Trends in democratic innovation in Asia

In Asia, democratic innovations are observed not only in established democracies including Japan but also under an authoritarian state, namely China, thus representing a showcase of democratic innovations across different regimes. Established democracies are abundant in democratic innovations at both national and local levels, while few of them have gone further into redefining and reimagining the role of citizens or producing a novel combination of participatory and deliberative democracy. Most transitional or consolidating democracies are still facing challenges in establishing representative democracy, and democratic innovations are now put to the test whether they have potential to change the situation and hold back counter trends towards democracy. China, the largest autocracy in the region as well as the world, has been active in implementing participatory budgeting at local levels as a part of administrative reform, but there is little chance that this trend will lead to democratisation at the national level.