Institutional Patterns in the New Democracies of Asia: Forms, Origins and Consequences1

This article analyzes the institutional patterns of eight young democracies in Asia. The analysis originates fromLijphart’smajoritarian-consensus framework. It illustrates that neither Lijphart’s two-dimensional democracy pattern, nor an alternative pattern exists in Asia. Instead, the review of possible causes for the lack of conformity between Lijphart’s patterns of democracy and the reality of the situation in Asia support the criticism in existing research literature regarding some of Lijphart’s main assumptions and major conclusions. Furthermore, Asian realities provide only partial support for Lijphart’s advice that the consensus option is the more attractive option for countries that designed their first democratic constitutions.