In this conversation with RevDem editor Ferenc Laczó, Joseph Wong – co-author with Dan Slater of the new monograph From Development to Democracy. The Transformations of Modern Asia – discusses when and why regimes have chosen to democratize in modern Asia; how come types rather than levels of development have shaped countries’ democratic prospects; why Singapore and China remain significantly less democratic than one might expect; and how studying the patterns of modern Asia can help us rethink democracy promotion today.

Joseph Wong is Vice President, International of the University of Toronto, a Professor of Political Science at the same university who also acts as the Ron and Ralph Halbert Professor of Innovation at the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy. His research focuses on health, democracy, and development as well as on questions of poverty and innovation, among other subjects. His previous publications include the monographs Healthy Democracies. Welfare Politics in Taiwan and South Korea and Betting on Biotech: Innovation and the Limits of Asia’s Developmental State.

From Development to Democracy. The Transformations of Modern Asia is published by Princeton University Press.

In collaboration with Lucie Hunter