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Originally Posted by The Reaper
Japan and Korea were not really democracies before US occupation. Even now, Japan is a constitutional monarchy with a parliamentary government, not a strict democracy. BTW, Thailand is a constitutional monarchy as well.
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Of the nations in Freedom House's rankings which receive the highest rating as free countries, 15 out of 46 are constitutional monarchies - Australia, the Bahamas, Barbados, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Tuvalu and the UK.
Of those receiving the second-highest rating, 7 out of 15 are constitutional monarchies - Belize, Grenada, Japan, Monaco, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia and St. Vincent and the Grenadines.
Jamaica and Thailand receive lower ratings, but are still "free". Six constitutional monarchies are "partly free" - Malaysia, Nepal, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands and Tonga. Two are "not free" - Bhutan and Cambodia.
If you define a constitutional monarchy with a parliamentary government as not being strictly a democracy, then your definition of democracy is too narrow. All of these constitutional monarchies are representative democracies, and only in a few - Liechtenstein, Thailand, Nepal, Tonga, Bhutan and arguably Luxembourg - does the monarch have any real authority.