Is democracy really returning to Asia?

Professor Larry Diamond, Senior Fellow, at the Hoover Institution of the Stanford University hopes that democracy will return to Asia as autocratic regimes have been rejected by the people. During an interview with the USA Today, Professor Diamond said, "Things are definitely more hopeful at the moment," says Larry Diamond, who studies young democracies at Stanford University's Hoover Institution.

Until recently, Diamond and other observers had worried that a two-decade transition toward democracy in Asia was backsliding. The concerns were fueled by a military coup in Thailand, a state of emergency in the Philippines and impeachment proceedings led by opposition parties in Taiwan and South Korea. The USA Today reviews the prospects of democratic come back in South Asian countries as voters delivered stunning defeats to authoritarian governments in Malaysia and Pakistan. In regard to Bangladesh the report gives more hopeful prediction as international pressure on the army backed care taker government is mounting to hold election at the earliest possible time. In Bangladesh, the army last year suspended parliament and installed a caretaker government, though Diamond predicts the country will come under intense pressure to restore democracy. Are we really going to get back an elected government or another army backed national government in 2008?