> managed democracies you see out East
Japan, Korea, Taiwan, India, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, and Indonesia all have fairly robust democracies. Yes, some of them probably look and feel different than those of NATO, but they are a great improvement over previous colonial administrations, monarchies, theocracies, and "single party democratic states" (Korea and Taiwan before late 1980s/early 1990s break-throughs).
Coming at it here from a broadly UK perspective. We have:
- Very little difference between ruling parties on core issues since the seventies, I'm thinking largely on the economic and foreign policy front here.
- Prison under terrorism offenses for peaceful protest.
- Arrests for (checks notes) complaining about the management of your local school in a WhatsApp group.[1]
People who argue we're somehow better than the people we happen to be fighting need to take a long hard look around. And maybe also remember that when we're not fighting folks (e.g., Saudi, Israel) abhorrent behaviour is tolerated and supported.
> Japan has had a ruling party in power almost continously for 70 years.