Civil society in the Asia- pacific region

By some accounts of history, Asia-Pacific region has been considered as the source of human civilization. It certainly contains countries with cultural civilisational records going back more than 5000 years in our history. That richness of tradition has also been reflected in various ways of organising the society, its economic enterprises and its political governance. In the last five decades, countries of the Asia-Pacific region have also demonstrated diverse approaches to social transformation, growth and development. We have had the traditions of Communist Governments in countries like China, and State-led socialist development in countries like India. The region has also had such economic giants as Japan, Korea, Taiwan and Singapore. Many states have had totalitarian regimes and Military Dictatorships. Some countries of the region have demonstrated economic advancement of rich level, others have large sections of a population living in abject poverty.