Broken back? Efficacy and participation in Asia’s democracies
| Author | Howard Sanborn |
| DOI | 10.1177/2057891117699091 |
| Published date | 01 March 2018 |
| Date | 01 March 2018 |
| Subject Matter | Research articles |
Research article
Broken back? Efficacy and
participation in Asia’s
democracies
Howard Sanborn
Virginia Military Institute, USA
Abstract
Previous scholarship describes an inconsistent role for democratic institutions in driving political
participation. Some research has detected signs of attachment leading to greater engagement while
others observe a negative, statistical relationship (Levi and Stoker, 2000). In the liberal and elec-
toral democracies of Asia, where support for democratic values appears to be growing (Chu and
Huang, 2010; Sanborn, 2015), institutions have taken an outsized role in an individual’s decision to
participate. This may be reflective of a ‘broken back’ form of democratization, where an engaged
citizenry is continually frustrated by poor performing government actors (Rose and Shin, 2001). In
this article, I evaluate the role of efficacy, internal and external, on the decision to attend rallies,
participate in campaigns, and contact officials. I find that citizens engage in these actions when they
are internally engaged in politics and frustrated with government performance. While this finding
offers a simple explanation for the decision to participate, it also signifies the obstacles to dem-
ocratic consolidation posed by poor-performing institutional actors.
Keywords
Asia, democracy, democratic consolidation, political participation, Third Wave
Introduction
Over the past several decades, observers have wondered about the potential for a ‘broken back’
form of democratization in Asia (Rose and Shin, 2001)—whether poor institutional performance
has fatally damaged the progress toward democracy in the region. Liberal values may have taken
hold in places, such as in Taiwan and South Korea, but the support for democracy, itself, has
waned. Citizens across the democratic and democratizing countries of the region can even be
divided into camps, with a large number of ‘Critical Democrats,’ akin to Norris’ (1999a) critical
citizens, represented in each country (Chu and Huang, 2010).
Corresponding author:
Howard Sanborn, Virginia Military Institute, 429 Scott Shipp Hall, Lexington, VA Virginia 24401, USA.
Email: sanbornhb@vmi.edu
Asian Journal of Comparative Politics
2018, Vol. 3(1) 13–24
ªThe Author(s) 2017
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DOI: 10.1177/2057891117699091
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