1 - Authoritarian Legality in East Asia

Summary

Authoritarian legality is widespread, diverse, and enduring in East Asia. This chapter first addresses definitions of authoritarian legality in East Asia. Authoritarian legality falls between liberal rule of law and lawless autocracy. Cases include Hong Kong, Singapore, and more indisputably authoritarian polities in the region. Although exhibiting considerable variation, East Asian authoritarian regimes generally score relatively high in rule-of-law metrics and share several regionally distinctive legal–political characteristics.This chapter then turns to the paradox of why authoritarian rulers and regimes in East Asia would incur the risks and costs associated with increases in, or relatively high levels of, legality. It considers several functions that legality can perform for authoritarian rulers, and discusses examples from historical and contemporary East Asian cases: managing threats to order and security; fostering economic development; strengthening state capacity; legitimating authoritarian rule; and responding to demand for greater legality (from society and from elites, including within the regime).Finally, the chapter considers possible future trajectories for authoritarian legality in East Asia, again drawing on past and current examples: resilience and adaptation; transformation to democratic legality; regime political and legal decay; authoritarianism without legality; and lingering elements of authoritarian legality in a democratized polity.