The Asian Values Debate: Spread of Liberal Democracy

The Debate on Asian Values
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The Debate on Asian Values
Surain Subramaniam’s “The Asian Values Debate: Implications for the Spread of Liberal Democracy” shows that the discussion on Asian values started in Singapore in the 1980s. The author uses three primary components, namely pragmatic, formative, and reactive, to explain the compatibility of Asian values with liberal democracy (Subramaniam, 2000). The formative component shows that Singaporeans began to debate about Asian values to know the ones that promote economic development and growth. This perspective depicts that if Asian values are known to mean the prevailing beliefs, habits, attitudes, and Asian institutions and societies, then they are a barrier to economic development and modernization.
The reactive component was the most popular that shows Asians’ cultural assertiveness. Indeed, it resembles the cultural nationalism rhetoric, which was perceived as the West’s cultural imperialism. The pragmatic component provides the most justifiable position of Asian values’ compatibility with liberal democracy. Specifically, it portrays that specific democratic values complicate various tasks of economic development and social...