group, precisely the countries against which the Asian Values proponents were
making their claims. The sub-indices for civil/political rights and economic rights
exhibit no significant differences between the “Western” and “Eastern” consti-
tutions. But the subtypes of constitutions exhibit different configurations in this
regard. Notably, the liberal democracies in Asia have greaterlevels of rights
protection than do the constitutions of the Western European/North American
countries.
With regard to criminal procedures, however, the Asian region is just above the
Middle East and North Africa as the area with the fewest rights. The Asian consti-
tutions have been remarkably stable, showing roughly the same level of protection
in 2010 as they had in 1950. (Indeed Asia is the only region with slightlylowerlevels
of protection in the latter period; regions like Eastern Europe, South Asia and Latin
America have seen significant and profound expansions of their criminal-procedure
rights.)
Stability
Another notable feature of this exercise has been to show that East Asian consti-
tutions have been remarkably stable. One does not see sharp declines in
legislative power, as in the Latin American case, or dramatic swings with regard
to criminal procedure. As mentioned above, this stability is one of the features
noted by Yeh and Chang in their study of Northeast Asian constitutionalism.^40
It also reflects the lack of major conflict in the region since the Vietnamese
invasion of Cambodia in 1979. Constitutional stability reflects, and contributes to,
political stability.
For some countries, such as China, this stability is a relatively recent phenom-
enon. The seventeen currently living constitutions of East and Southeast Asia have
an observed average age of thirty-four years, well above the global average life
expectancy for all time of nineteen years and behind only the Western European/
North American group and Oceania. Even new democracies, such as Mongolia,
have shown remarkable constitutional endurance in recent decades. This fact is an
important feature to note. However, earlier eras have seen some instability, and so
East Asia’s position in the global statistics is lower than, say, Western Europe
(seeTable 2. 1 ) because of a pattern of some trial and error that is necessary for
countries to find stable institutions.
To summarize, we observe some distinctive patterns when comparing the formal
features of Asian constitutions with those of other regions of the world. Much,
though, depends on the level of abstraction, and the results are somewhat driven by
particular sub-groups of countries. The Leninist countries are clearly driving the
(^40) Yeh and Chang, “The emergence of East Asian constitutionalism.”