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resign and holding open multiparty parliamentary elections in 1999. Since the
democratic transition, all these four countries have remained electoral democracies
without breakdown or reversion (Freedom House, various years).
A notable case is Thailand, which transitioned to democracy in 1992, but its
democratic consolidation was interrupted by a 2006 military coup. Since then
Thailand has remained a non-democracy with a brief democratic interlude in the
early 2010s (Freedom House, various years). Unlike their neighbors, in contrast,
Singapore and Malaysia have been immune from the third-wave democratization and
remained non-democracies with a façade of multiparty elections.

Along with political liberalization and democratization, much of East Asia has
also suffered rising income inequality after a long period of equitable economic
growth under authoritarian rule. In a report on inequality in Asia, Jain-Chandra and
her colleagues (2016, 8) note that “From 1990-[20]15, the region grew around 6
percent per annum, notwithstanding the sharp slowdowns during the Asian Financial
Crisis and the Global Financial Crisis.” However, they show that “this impressive
economic performance has been accompanied by rising inequality in a number of
Asian economies.” They point out that “Rising inequality in Asia is in contrast to its

own remarkable past record of equitable growth. Pre-1990, Asian economies grew
fast but were also able to reduce inequality, leading to growth that was inclusive”
(9). After achieving substantial redistribution with shared-growth model, much of
East Asia has experienced rising income and/or wealth inequality. 2
Figure 1 shows that the levels of post-tax and transfers income inequality in
selected East Asian countries for the three periods: 1990 (or earliest)-1999, 2000-
2009, and 2010-2015 (or latest). We use the Gini coefficient from the Standardized
เอกสารประกอบการอภิปรายร่วมระหว่างผู้แทนจากต่างประเทศ
World Income Inequality Database (SWIID) assembled by Solt (2016). The levels
of income inequality have risen, at varying degrees, across much of the region.
Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Indonesia, Mongolia, and Singapore displayed an
upward trend. The Philippines, Malaysia, and Thailand exhibited a downward trend.
Of the six countries with an upward trend, Indonesia suffered the sharpest rise. Of
the three countries with a downward trend, Thailand experienced the biggest
decrease. It is notable that levels of income inequality have risen or remained high
(considering Gini coefficient of 35.0 to be the threshold for high inequality) in new
democracies, suggesting that the rise of democracy has not led to more
redistribution, contrary to the expectation of the Meltzer-Richard model that
redistribution is greater in democracy than in dictatorship (Meltzer and Richard
1981). In fact, comparing the pre-tax and transfers Gini coefficient with the post-tax

2 The film Crazy Rich Asians draws attention to the region’s growing wealth inequality.