Democracy’s Dharma: Religious Renaissance and Political Development in Taiwan by Richard Madsen (review)

Abstract

164 Journal of Chinese Religions dynamics of schism, tensions among different hegemonies, recurrent paths of cyclical transformation, and the relation between sacred books and their followers, of the Chinese sectarian movement through time. JEN-CHIEH TING, Institute of Ethnology, Academia Sinica Democracy’s Dharma: Religious Renaissance and Political Development in Taiwan RICHARD MADSEN. Berkeley: University of California, Press, 2007. xxvi, 191 pages. ISBN 978-0-520-25228-8. US$21.95, £12.95, paperback. This book written by a political scientist looks at the religious life of Taiwan from an unusual angle. Political scientists have usually looked at religion as a marginal phenomenon, and have subscribed to some versions of secularization theory that predicted its disappearance from the public sphere. Area study experts looking into South Asia or the Middle East have resisted this approach because of the political realities in these parts of the world and scholars on US politics have also rejected the view that religion would vanish from the political arena. Yet, despite these exceptions, most specialists working on the politics of East Asia have cast this part of the world as similar to Western Europe, immune from the passions of religious values and controversies. Research traditions in historiography, anthropology, and sociology have long ago questioned this vision of secularized Asian society, but for the most part, political scientists have ignored this dimension of public life. Richard Madsen’s book provides a welcome exception to that trend. It looks at three Buddhist organizations: Tzu-chi 慈濟, Buddha’s Light Mountain (Fo-kuang shan 佛光山), and Dharma Drum Mountain (Fa-ku shan 法鼓山), as well as a Taoist association, the Enacting Heaven Temple (Hsing-t’ien kung 行天 宮), to explore the contribution of religious organizations to democracy. The central point of this book is that religious organizations in Taiwan often contain important seeds of autonomy, but of a kind that is not opposed to the government. By fostering moderation and in cooperating with the government in charity works, he argues, these organizations have played a conservative, stabilizing role in a society going through a rapidly changing political situation (p. 136). After a discussion of Taiwan’s religious context that emphasizes the importance of Confucianism and that pays due respect to the sociopolitical background, Richard Madsen provides a description of his case studies. He first discusses Tzu-chi, also known as the Buddhist Compassion Relief Association, which stands as Taiwan’s major charity organization. Led by a charismatic figure of unquestioned authority, it may not seem a solid Book Reviews 165 foundation for democracy, admits the author. However, he argues that its nature as a selfgoverning voluntary organization, its nurturance of a cosmopolitan form of Taiwanese nationalism, and its development of civic virtues reconciling Buddhist benevolence with a Confucian moral framework (p. 46), make positive contributions to political life even though it does not engage in partisan politics (p. 48). He admits the situation is more ambiguous with respect to the Buddha Light Mountain, the second case study he explores in this book. That association has been more openly involved in politics than Tzu-chi, but it is difficult to know how much the vagueness of its strictures influence public opinion (p. 83). In the third case study he examines, Dharma Drum Mountain, Madsen sees the soothing influence of calm objectivity on sometimes acrimonious political debates (p. 103). In his fourth case study, however, the author sees in the idiosyncratic mixture of specific forms of Daoist practices and Confucian principles a weak source of moral and social integration (p. 129). From these case studies, one if left with the impression that only Buddhist associations have built the capacity to sustain social values that can nurture a conservative form of democracy. Richard Madsen argues convincingly that the concepts inspiring people who join these Buddhist organizations represent a creative, broad, and flexible reworking of Confucian values (p. 2), and notes that they depart significantly from Western views of democracy. Because I agree with his characterization that these values are not canonical, I think we should refrain from labeling them as a set of Asian—or Taiwanese—values. As he admits himself, Taiwanese society largely subscribes to individualistic values and, conversely, many Americans would certainly approve...