Patterns of Democracy Support: A Latent Class Analysis Across East Asia

• In Event: Popular Beliefs About Democracy

Abstract

Scholars of democracy have long sought to classify citizens in order to describe support
for liberal values, particularly in recently-transitioned systems. While this approach
provides a description of a given polity, it is often limited in explaining the actions of each
of these classifications. In this paper, we evaluate attempts to classify individuals in new democracies into citizenship types, including Norris’ (1999) argument for the prevalence of critical citizens. We also review Chu and Huang’s (2010) four quadrant framework
based on support for democracy and adherence to liberal values. Using latent class
analysis (LCA), we provide a more refined categorization based on optimism and
pessimism across the populations of Asia’s liberal democracies: Japan, South Korea, and
Taiwan. By identifying these trends, we hope to elucidate the characteristics that guide
support for democracy across these systems.

Authors

• Jose Aleman, Fordham University

• Howard Bartlett Sanborn, Virginia Military Institute