Democratization and the Political Economy of Taiwan

Abstract

Several newly industrialized Asian countries are identified as "devel opmental states." Such states have used the political power at their center to shape, guide, and encourage the achievement of explicit economic ob jectives and are known for high economic growth since the 1960s (Leftwich 1995; Evans 1987; Haggard and Cheng 1987; Johnson 1987; Wade 1990; White 1984). In discussing the structural conditions that made economic development successful in these countries, researchers have observed sev eral development-associated features. For example, the availability of com mitted developmental elites and a competent economic bureaucracy are frequently identified as key elements in these remarkable economies, as is the existence of an autonomous state apparatus that is repressive, authori tarian, and insulated from a weak and subordinated civil society (Castells 1992; Leftwich 1995). The above description of these newly industrialized Asian countries is based partially on the experience of economic development in Taiwan and South Korea in the 1960s and 1970s. However, development since then has substantially departed from the original course as described by "develop mental state" scholars. In the 1990s, both Taiwan and South Korea took the path to full democratization. The questions raised here are: which fac tors have contributed to the decline of authoritarian rule in these devel opmental states and how has democratic transformation been achieved? Although existing studies on the relationship between economic develop ment and democracy argue that such a transformation is the direct outcome of economic development (Lipset 1959) and that the very success of that economic development is bound to undermine the autonomy of the state (Harris 1992), it is unclear through what political process the passive, weak, and suppressed civil society turns itself around and becomes the force for democratic transformation.