Offering systematic coverage of major social groups including ethnic minorities, recent migrants, gay and lesbian groups, religious sects, and marginalized workers this is the first study to investigate the multiple facets of social domination in Taiwan and the ongoing struggles by minority groups to overcome subordination.
Taiwan has been hailed as a successful case of democratization. Compared with many other nations, the transition from authoritarian rule occurred in a rather orderly fashion. Group consciousness emerged as a reaction to the decades-long suppression of cultural diversity under martial law as different social groups competed fiercely to exert their political subjectivity. This volume is the first study to examine the politics of difference in Taiwan. It aims to go beyond ethnic identity as the sole concern for group boundary, to acknowledge the interests of other marginalized groups, and to look behind reified group boundaries in order to discover group differences as mediated social relations based on overlapping boundaries rather than exclusive opposition. In exploring the politics of difference among minority groups and the problems arising from their struggle over political recognition, the book challenges the assumptions that groups are ontologically given, that groups are internally homogenous, and that the particularistic identities have no overlap. The chapters offer a broad coverage of major social groups including ethnic minorities, recent migrants, gay and lesbian groups, and marginalized workers. They offer perspective analyses of the ongoing struggles by minority groups to overcome subordination. .
This book shows that Taiwan, unlike other countries, avoided serious economic disruption and social conflict, and arrived at its goal of multi-party competition with little blood shed. Nonetheless, this survey reveals that for those who imagine democracy to be the panacea for every social, economic and political ill, Taiwan's continuing struggles against corruption, isolation and division offer a cautionary lesson. This book is an ideal, one-stop resource for undergraduate and postgraduate students of political science, particuarly those interested in the international politics of China, and the Asia-Pacific.
Do the pressures of economic globalization undermine the welfare state? Contrary to the expectations of many analysts, Taiwan and South Korea have embarked on a new trajectory, toward a strengthened welfare state and universal inclusion. In Healthy Democracies, Joseph Wong offers a political explanation for health care reform in these two countries. He focuses specifically on the ways in which democratic change in Taiwan and South Korea altered the incentives and ultimately the decisions of policymakers and social policy activists in contemporary health care debates.Wong uses extensive field research and interviews to explore both similarities and subtle differences in the processes of political change and health care reform in Taiwan and South Korea. During the period of authoritarian rule, he argues, state leaders in both places could politically afford to pursue selective social policies—reform was piecemeal and health care policy outcomes far from universal. Wong finds that the introduction of democratic reform changed the political logic of social policy reform: vote-seeking politicians needed to promote popular policies, and health care reform advocates, from bureaucrats to grassroots activists, adapted to this new political context. In Wong's view, the politics of democratic transition in Taiwan and South Korea has served as an effective antidote to the presumed economic imperatives of social welfare retrenchment during the process of globalization.
" How Taiwan can overcome internal stresses and the threat from China Taiwan was a poster child for the “third wave” of global democratization in the 1980s. It was the first Chinese society to make the transition todemocracy, and it did so gradually and peacefully. But Taiwan today faces a host of internal issues, starting with the aging of society and the resulting intergenerational conflicts over spending priorities. China's long-term threat to incorporate the island on terms similar to those used for Hong Kong exacerbates the island's home-grown problems. Taiwan remains heavily dependent on the United States for its security, but it must use its own resources to cope with Beijing's constant intimidation and pressure. How Taiwan responds to the internal and external challenges it faces—and what the United States and other outside powers do to help—will determine whether it is able to stand its ground against China's ambitions. The book explores the broad range of issues and policy choices Taiwan confronts and offers suggestions both for what Taiwan can do to help itself and what the United States should do to improve Taiwan's chances of success. "
This book is admittedly biased in support of liberty. Taiwan: The Threatened Democracy focuses on U.S. relations with Taiwan and the People's Republic of China from the Mao Tse-tung era through the Cold War to the current day, and projects the island's possible future. Taiwan has long been a flashpoint in the struggle between the communist and free world. Yet even as the possibility of armed conflict between China and Taiwan increases - a conflict with great implications for the United States - a domestic war has sprung up between the Bush White House and its support of Taiwan, and State Department staffers who lean heavily to the side of the People's Republic of China. Key to the conflict are those who care more about making profit in China than they care about maintaining liberty in Taiwan.
"This volume may become the definitive resource for understanding the Chen Shui-bian era--important for studying not only Taiwan¿s democratic development, but also democratic consolidation in general. The authors illustrate the complex, uneven, and multifaceted aspects of the era, also highlighting the 'unfinished' nature of this lived democratic experience." --Vincent Wei-cheng Wang, University of Richmond "A 'must read' collection.... This is by far the best treatment of democratic consolidation in Taiwan that I have seen." --Cal Clark, Auburn University When Chen Shui-bian, Taiwan¿s first non-Kuomintang president, left office in 2008, his tenure was widely considered a disappointment. More recent events, however, suggest the need for a reassessment of this crucial period in Taiwan¿s political development. Taiwan¿s Democracy Challenged provides that assessment, considering key facets of both the progress toward and the obstacles to democratic consolidation during the Chen Shui-bian era. Yun-han Chu is professor of political Science at National Taiwan University, Distinguished Research Fellow at the Institute of Political Science at Academia Sinica, and president of the Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation. Larry Diamond is senior fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies and the Hoover Institution, Stanford University. Kharis Templeman is research associate at the Spogli Institute¿s Center on Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law and also manages the institute¿s Taiwan Democracy Program.
Relations between Taiwan and the Peoples Republic of China have oscillated between outright hostility and wary detente ever since the Archipelago seceded from the Communist mainland over six decades ago. While the mainland has long coveted the island, Taiwan has resisted - aided by the United States which continues to play a decisive role in cross-strait relations today. In this comprehensive analysis, noted China specialist Steven Goldstein shows that although relations between Taiwan and its larger neighbor have softened, underlying tensions remain unresolved. These embers of conflict could burst into flames at any point, engulfing the whole region and potentially dragging the United States into a dangerous confrontation with the PRC Guiding readers expertly through the historical background to the complexities of this fragile peace, Goldstein discusses the shifting economic, political and security terrain, and examines the pivotal role played by the United States in providing weapons and diplomatic support to Taiwan whilst managing a complex relationship with an increasingly powerful China. Drawing on a wealth of newly declassified material, this compelling and insightful book is an invaluable guide to one of the worlds riskiest, long-running conflicts.
The Taiwan Voter examines the critical role ethnic and national identities play in politics, utilizing the case of Taiwan. Although elections there often raise international tensions, and have led to military demonstrations by China, no scholarly books have examined how Taiwan’s voters make electoral choices in a dangerous environment. Critiquing the conventional interpretation of politics as an ideological battle between liberals and conservatives, The Taiwan Voter demonstrates in Taiwan the party system and voters’ responses are shaped by one powerful determinant of national identity—the China factor. Taiwan’s electoral politics draws international scholarly interest because of the prominent role of ethnic and national identification. While in most countries the many tangled strands of competing identities are daunting for scholarly analysis, in Taiwan the cleavages are powerful and limited in number, so the logic of interrelationships among issues, partisanship, and identity are particularly clear. The Taiwan Voter unites experts to investigate the ways in which social identities, policy views, and partisan preferences intersect and influence each other. These novel findings have wide applicability to other countries, and will be of interest to a broad range of social scientists interested in identity politics.