Referendums in Asia

Referendums are rare in Asia, but the few that have been held have tended to be abused to strengthen the power of their rulers, such as in Myanmar or Azerbaijan, where they have been used as a tool by autocrats to legitimize their rule. However, in other countries, like Taiwan, they are increasingly being used as a means of strengthening citizen participation and to hold the executive to account. Interestingly, in some of the most consolidated democracies, like Japan or South Korea, referendums at the national level have been reserved for constitutional changes and have rarely been used in the case of the latter, and never in the case of the former.