Turns out when you philosophically align your country around the idea that the state and the collective are more important than the individual, autocracy always flourishes.
I always wonder whether Japan, Korea, Taiwan would be able to preserve separation of powers without US support. I feel like if US one day declines in power and won't be able to support then, they would fall into autocracies pretty quickly.
well, history in general shows autocracy flourishes whether or not the individual or the collective is primary, not sure you can claim a correlation there
Collectivist Asian cultures can definitely manage separation of powers and democracy.