A fascinating study of how democracy is faring in East Asia, released late last year, deserves a closer look, particularly at this time of financial crisis, when self-styled socialist countries (think China and Vietnam) are doing relatively well after turning to the market economy and governments in the capitalist countries are taking over banks and other private enterprises.

The study — a large-scale survey-research project in which research teams conducted surveys in five new democracies (South Korea, Taiwan, the Philippines, Thailand, and Mongolia), one established democracy (Japan), and two non-democracies (China and Hong Kong) — was published by Columbia University Press as a book...