With the Third Wave of Democratization (Huntington 1991) the forms of government have changed in many parts of the world. While in the 1970s two-thirds of all governments were authoritarian, by the first decade of the new millennium an equally large proportion of countries may be considered democratic or, following Robert Dahl, polyarchies (Dahl 1971). Even though Larry Diamond has declared that the Third Wave is over (Diamond 1996), there has so far been no major reverse wave as in the case of the previous two waves of democratization. Yet, the democratic substance and the stability of many of the new polyarchies vary immensely. This has led to a change of research perspectives over time. While in the late 1970s and 1980s political scientists were preoccupied with the conditions facilitating the collapse of authoritarian regimes and the prerequisites for democratization, from the 1990s onward research has increasingly concentrated on the strengthening of democracy (Merkel 1999; UNDP 2002).

The regime transitions have facilitated a renewed concern with political institutions (Mols 1982; March and Olsen 1984, p. 734). By institutions we mean “persistent and connected sets of rules (formal and informal) that prescribe behavioural roles, constrain activity, and shape expectations” (Keohane 1989, p. 3). Institutions are seen from this perspective as key variables in the consolidation of new democracies and the sustenance of older democracies. It is thus no coincidence that in the 1990s studies on constitutional engineering, elections, political parties and party systems, non governmental organizations (NGOs), and other civil society organizations were mushrooming. Amazingly, legislatures did not figure prominently in these studies. Even less attention has been paid to the legislative institutions in Asia. The present study seeks to address this lacuna. Its objective is to study the contribution of legislatures to the consolidation of new democracies and the stability of older democracies in Asia. The five countries under study are India, Indonesia, the Philippines, South Korea, and Thailand.