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South Korea is one of the few countries that are making a transition from a "limited access order" to an "open access order." This paper explores how the transition has taken place and what has made this transition possible, comparing South Korean experience with those of Taiwan and the Philippines. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A growing literature surveys how democracy changes the government?s spending priorities in Latin America. This paper extends study to the Asian-Newly Industrialized Countries (NICs) to evaluate how specific democratic procedures ? elections and legislative fragmentation ? affect military and civilian allocations. It also considers how the sequence and rules of the budgetary process affect results. The analyses of government spending in South Korea, Taiwan, and Singapore from the 1960s to 2000 reveal two important findings. First, the budgetary process significantly influences how the effects of elections and legislative fragmentation are manifested; indeed, the effects of elections and legislative fragmentation on the government?s spending priorities are clear and robust only when the sequence and rules of budget making are modeled. Second, democracy does not affect government spending separately from elections and legislative fragmentation in South Korea and Taiwan ? it has a distinct effect only on spending in Singapore. These findings add nuances and new perspectives to the study of democracy?s effects on the government?s military and civilian allocations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses how and to what extent the international norm concerning the prohibition of the death penalty plays a role in East Asian democracies. In stark contrast to the worldwide abolitionist trend, the death penalty remains most entrenched in Asia, where more than 90 percent of all known executions take place. Why does the norm against the death penalty, which is apparently so important for most parts of the world, seem to have no impact on East Asia? How do domestic factors ? political leadership, public opinion, and institutional structures ? contribute to the rejection of the universally promoted human rights norm? With regard to the three major democracies in East Asia at different stages of the anti-death penalty movement (South Korea, most active in the abolitionist movement; Taiwan in the middle; and Japan least active), it investigates what accounts for the current varying impact of the norm in the same region. Analyzing how public and elite opinion interact with each other on capital punishment and what roles domestic institutional structures play, this paper aims to assess norm diffusion and to measure the norm?s capabilities and limitations for helping to shape new death penalty policy in this region. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on a study that attempts to understand American military posture in East Asia within the context of a U.S.-Japan-China-South Korea-Taiwan pyramid, where the U.S. plays the role of benign leader at the apex. It explores some military arrangements contemplated by the U.S. It examines five official documents made to the public since the inauguration of U.S. President George W. Bush including the "Quadrennial Defense Review Report."

East Asia anticipates two important political transitions: Chinese democratization, and Korean unification under a democratic regime. This paper draws upon international relations theory in order to shed light on the effects of these transitions on regional stability. Whereas democratization and war theory would expect instability, theories of economic interdependence predict the opposite. This article tests these theories in the cases of three democratizing states: Malaysia, Taiwan, and South Korea. Like the future cases, these countries were pursuing export-led growth strategies, and faced potentially high costs from bellicose behavior. Although war did not occur in any of these cases, I test for lesser increases in hostility. Through process tracing, I also test for the occurrence of the theories’ expected mechanisms: nationalism and “logrolling” by political coalitions, orâ€"converselyâ€"pressure from the business community for foreign policy restraint. I find little evidence that supports the democratization and war thesis; instead, evidence from all three cases supports the theory of economic interdependence and peace. The study thus contributes to two prominent literatures within international relations theory. It provides a valuable test of largely quantitative literatures that have focused on demonstrating correlation, instead of substantiating their causal claims through process tracing. It argues for greater specification of the conditions under which democratic transitions will promote international instability. Findings from this study also provide support for foreign policy strategies of engagement, and suggest optimism for the stability of the future Korean and Chinese transitions. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Political life in modern Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan is traditionally characterized by a strong central government, influential economic elites, and a relatively homogeneous society. In such settings we would not expect to find much local democratic innovation, but the case of foreign workers in these countries challenges this assessment. Relatively unskilled foreign workers in present-day East Asia face a range of hardships, and existing governments? programs provide little support. Media portrayals of illegal workers ? as in several other industrialized democracies ? reinforce popular suspicion and fear of these foreigners. Yet, host countries? citizens themselves have formed numerous local associations aimed at assisting illegal foreign workers. I evaluate this trend in light of a pragmatic account of political motivation: associative activism. My account makes explicit the process through which some activists, who initially work in concert chiefly to solve specific local problems, eventually form broader political ambitions as they exert pressure on dominant features of the public sphere, especially processes of political representation and opinion formation. These associative efforts illustrate how civil society groups in East Asian countries can play an increasing role in redefining membership rules and state responsibilities for their residents. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]