THE (KOREAN) ASIAN DEMOCRACY INDEX IN THE PHILIPPINES:

AN INSIDER S PERSPECTIVE
Miguel Paolo P. Reyes

Introduction
This paper is partly textualized self-reflection on my role as researcher-incharge of the Asian Democracy Index (ADI) project in the Philippines.1 The project
is South Korean in origin, and is currently undertaken by members of the
multinational Consortium for the Asian Democracy Index (CADI). Here, I construe
myself both as an individual researcher and as a member or metonym of several
collectives described herein. I try to go beyond possibly self-indulgent reflexivity
by additionally framing this paper as an autocritical piece in my capacity as a CADI
member. I realize that my position vis--vis my subject makes my ability to
objectively analyze my subject questionable. Nevertheless, I think a paper such as
this can at the very least invite further critical inquiry into one of the newest
sustained democracy assessment efforts, given the dearth of published material
by the Consortium.2
self-serving desire for our work to have increased sociopolitical relevance or
resonance. Through this meager effort, I also aim to make a contribution to the
literature on democratization measurement by answering this hardly novel, but
little-explored query: how well can a democracy/democratization metric developed
primarily in one country e.g., South Korea measure democracy/democratization
in another country?
Studies such as those mentioned in Jason Seawright and David Collier (2013,
117) have pointed out (potential) biases of democracy/democratization
measurement tools depending on the institutions and individuals behind them,
which are different from the systematic biases of such emerging from
methodological choicesthat were highlighted by Gerardo Munck and Jay Verkuilen
(2002). However, I have yet to come across such a study written from the
a somewhat confessional mode to borrow terminology from literary studies
presents data on the formulation, development, and execution of a
democracy/democratization measurement tool that is obscured or only dealt with

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