This article discusses instances of democratic backsliding by country in Asia. Democratic backsliding is the process of a country losing democratic qualities over time.
Armenia The National Interest has stated that despite high hopes after the 2018 Armenian Revolution, Armenia has backslided quickly, especially after the snap 2021 parliamentary election.
Under the rule of Nikol Pashinyan, large-scale measures against political dissents, human rights activists, and journalists increased. Pashinyan began persecuting members of the previous cabinet on politically motivated charges, such as two former defense ministers Seyran Ohanyan (for embezzlement) and David Tonoyan (as part of an investigation to the supplying of an outdated missile to the Armed Forces of Armenia).
The democratic backsliding worsened especially after the 2021 parliamentary election, after which the government continued to find "the enemies of the people". Media freedom remained restricted and arrests against journalists increased in 2022. The Armenian diaspora has been especially targeted, with authorities refusing to allow Mourad Papazian, a French chairman of a diaspora organization, into the country due to his involvement in anti-Pashinyan protests in Paris in July 2022. On 1 August, two Dutch-Armenians, Massis Abrahamian and Suneh Abrahamian, also spoke out against the government and were designated persona non grata in Armenia.
Members of the opposition Armenian Revolutionary Federation (Dashnaktsutyun) have also been targeted. It was revealed in May 2022 that the Armenian government under Pashinyan unlawfully installed the Predator spyware against journalists, dissidents, and human rights activists and hacked devices of several opposition leaders
In January 2023, Artavazd Margaryan, head of the faction, was detained for 72 hours along with party activist Gerasim Vardanyan. Margaryan's lawyer mocked the detention as illegal. Film producer and opposition supporter Armen Grigorian was put in pre-trial custody despite committing no crimes and died in July 2022 as his immune system got worse.
Bangladesh
Bangladesh has faced multiple episodes of democratic backsliding since its transition to parliamentary rule in 1991. At first, Bangladesh's democratisation was very promising with the media becoming freer and an independent judiciary being promised by all parties. However, the two main parties, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and Awami League (AL) showed a lack of respect for democratic rules, undermining the legitimacy of elections by refusing election results. In late 1994, the opposition Awami League resigned from parliament, demanding for a caretaker government system to oversee elections. This change was refused by the incumbent BNP which insisted the AL adhere to the constitution.
The authoritarian behaviour increased significantly in late 1995. While the opposition AL endorsed violence by their supporters, the incumbent BNP used heavy-handed measures to restrict civil liberties against the opposition. Although this ended with the BNP gaining complete control of the parliament in February 1996, a caretaker government system was finally implemented, potentially paving the way for more peaceful transitions of power. However, an extreme concentration of power in the post of the prime minister developed where they concurrently held several offices: the leader of the House, leader of the majority party in parliament, and chief of the party. Article 70 of the constitution also allowed the prime minister to revoke the membership of members of parliament if they vote against their own party or abstain from sitting or voting. Violence by parties' supporters continued.
On 17 May 2004, an amendment to the constitution allowed the previous Chief Justice to be eligible for the head of the caretaker government and Bangladesh started to transition into a competitive authoritarian regime where democratic institutions are viewed as exercising political authority but are violated by incumbents and elections become farcical. During this system, corruption became institutionalised and anti-corruption mechanisms were used against the political opposition. In October 2006, when a new caretaker government was about to be appointed, the opposition parties did not accept the immediate past Chief Justice and the president became the head of state. In the 2006–2008 Bangladeshi political crisis, the BNP tried to influence the 2007 election and activists violently demonstrated with much condoning from the political parties. The military intervened, but political pressure forced the military to host an election at the end of 2008, which was won by the Awami League.
After Sheikh Hasina won the 2008 election, Bangladesh began to backslide into an electoral autocracy where the elections are noncompetitive and not free or fair. This process started with the 15th amendment to the constitution which removed the caretaker government system, allowing for the AL to dominate state institutions and future elections. It removed uncertainty in election results, allowing unchecked electoral fraud. The removal of the caretaker government was based on a Supreme Court ruling in May 2011 which was declared unconstitutional. The opposition criticised the removal of this system and boycotted the 2014 general election. Because of this boycott, more than half the parliament was elected unopposed and Bangladesh became a de facto one-party state, even when the Jatiya Party was declared to be the official opposition. The 2018 election results only increased the AL coalition's dominance to 288 out of 300 seats, although opposition parties participated. The election was condemned as "farcical" and "transparently fraudulent" by international media. Main opposition party BNP and others labelled it the "Midnight Election". They claimed that the ballot boxes were filled at night in favour of the incumbent Awami League. It was considered the biggest backsliding of Bangladeshi Democracy.
In addition, the AL brought frivolous charges and court battles against the opposition, particularly against the BNP. While former Prime Minister and BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia had 36 cases filed against her and was sentenced to 5 years in prison in a graft case in February 2018, the courts dropped all cases against Hasina filed during the BNP government in May 2010. Freedom of expression also declined significantly with the Information and Communication Technology Act, 2006 allowing charges against people who publish material which is "false", "prejudicial to the state or person" and/or "hurt religious beliefs". However, there were no defined offences until an amendment in 2013 defined a steep penalty at 14 years imprisonment and a fine of 10,000,000 (1 crore) taka which has been used to legally and extra legally charge human rights defenders, journalists, newspapers, editors and other media organisations. Another act restricting freedom of expression, the Digital Security Act, 2018, also criminalised many forms of legitimate freedom of expression and dissent.
Extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances, collectively termed as "crossfire", increased significantly. Furthermore, the AL tightened control over various institutions, especially onto the courts after 2014. The 16th amendment to the constitution allowed the parliament to impeach Supreme Court judges for incapability and misconduct, leading to the 21st Chief Justice of Bangladesh Surendra Kumar Sinha to resign and be exiled.
Bangladesh's increasing autocratization was cited by political observers as a key factor behind the Student–People's uprising in 2024. The movement successfully ousted Hasina who resigned and fled to India in self-imposed exile.
Cambodia In July 1997, Hun Sen seized power after months of tension and a grenade attack against the FUNCINPEC party, tightening his grip on power ever since by cracking down on the opposition. 20 years later, another opposition party, the Cambodia National Rescue Party, was dissolved after it was expected to gain sufficient support to win over Hun Sen's Cambodian People's Party. Party leader Kem Sokha was charged with treason, and many other opposition leaders fled or were banned from politics. This caused the CPP to dominate the parliament.
Vitit Muntarbhorn, who was appointed as the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Cambodia in 2021, warned that Cambodia had been backsliding since the 1991 Paris Peace Agreements, especially since the COVID-19 pandemic, during which the government cracked down criticism on its response by arresting hundreds of people and handing prison sentences of over 20 years under a draconian law.
India
The V-Dem Democracy Indices found that democratic backsliding is taking place in India under prime minister Narendra Modi and the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), citing the passage of the 2019 Citizenship (Amendment) Act and the government's subsequent response to the Citizenship Amendment Act protests. It also accused the Indian government of attempting to "stifle critics in the media and academia".
In 2020, the V-Dem Institute identified India as one of five severe cases of democratic backsliding, relating to disproportionate limitations being placed upon the role of the Parliament of India through measures responding to the COVID-19 pandemic. This, they asserted, may lead to an "increased danger of power abuse by the executive". As of their Democracy Report 2021, V-Dem lists India as an electoral autocracy, with significant downward movement to a number of indicators. According to V-Dem, "In general, the Modi-led government in India has used laws on sedition, defamation, and counterterrorism to silence critics. In addition, critics have also accused him of arresting rival politicians to combat his opposition. A major politician that was arrested for corruption under him was Chief Minister of Delhi Arvind Kejriwal, a prominent opponent of Modi and the BJP."Pillai, Shreeya and Lindberg, Staffan I. (2021) "Democracy Broken Down: India" in Democracy Report 2021: Autocratization Turns Viral pp.20–21. V-Dem Institute In 2023, it referred to India as "one of the worst autocratisers in the last 10 years". According to V-Dem's Democracy Report 2025, India ranked at 100 of 179 countries globally.
Foreign policy commentator Jonah Blank has described the 2019 revocation of the special status of Jammu and Kashmir as an example of the "slow transmogrification of democracy" under the Modi government.
Indian lawyer Gautam Bhatia asserts that the Indian government has taken advantage of "vaguely worded" legislative clauses, some of a "colonial vintage", to effectively bypass the "deliberative organ" (the legislature) in relation to COVID-19. Some of these laws, he further asserted, technically hold "formal statutory backing", making it more difficult for the legislature to oppose executive power.
According to the Democracy Index of the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), India is a flawed democracy. The EIU downgraded India from 51st place to 53rd place in their 2020 Democracy Index, citing "democratic backsliding" and "crackdowns" on civil liberties.
In its 2021 Democracy under Siege report, Freedom House downgraded India from "free" to "partly free", citing the response to the Citizenship Amendment Act protests. In 2023, according to the Freedom in the World report by Freedom House, India was classified as a "partly free" country for the third consecutive year.
Indonesia
There have been concerns of declining freedom of expression during the first term of the Joko Widodo administration, evidenced by the arrest, detainment, and imprisonment of many people for their social media activity being interpreted as an "insult" to the president.