Describes how democracy is evolving in East Asia and how it assumes different forms in different countries, with political parties adapting and evolving alongside. This book contends that the existing variety of party systems in East Asia will endure and may even flourish, rather than converge as liberal democracies.

Introduction (L F Lye & W Hofmeister); One Party System: Is Democratisation Compatible with China's One-Party System? (Y-N Zheng & L F Lye); The Vietnamese Communist Party and Renovation (Doi Moi) in Vietnam (T D Luan); One Party Dominant System: Cambodia: A Hegemonic-Party System in the Making (S PEOU); The People's Action Party and Political Liberalisation in Singapore (K P Tan); The End of One-Party Dominance and Japan's Emergence as a Common DemocracyA" (P E Lam); Multi-Party System: Thai Political Parties in the Age of the Great Divide (C Pavin); Last Chapter of an Uneasy Partnership: The Loss of Jusuf Kalla in 2009 Presidential Election (H Syamsul); Political Parties and Party System in Korea after Democratisation: Cartelised Party System and Oscillations between Two Models (S-H Lim); Priorities for Philippine Political Parties: Mass Membership, Political Education, and Party Development Law (D T Gonzalez); Taiwan's Democratisation and the Freezing of the Party System (H-Y Shyu); Two Key Stumbling Blocks for Hong Kong's Democratisation: Personal Vote and Beijing's Policies (H Y Li).