Redesigning, Subverting, Rolling Back: How East Asia’s Conservatives Rebuilt Legitimacy

Abstract

This study examines the legitimation strategies adopted by conservative political parties in Japan, Taiwan, and South Korea from the late 2000s to the late 2010s, a period when these parties experienced political setbacks. By focusing on conservatives’ stances on labour issues, this study identifies three legitimation strategies: redesigning (acting as a superior protector of workers), subverting (destabilising an entire political landscape), and rolling back (undoing reforms implemented by a progressive government). This research aims to uncover the factors driving the adoption of these strategies. By revisiting Polanyi’s The Great Transformation, we establish a comparative framework to analyse these three strategies. This study argues that these differences were not random choices but deliberate responses to specific socio-political configurations that emerged after what Polanyi identified as a “double movement.” While the three countries shared common efforts by society to alleviate the detrimental impacts of market-oriented reforms, variations in the effects of the double movement, in terms of public attitudes towards labour reforms implemented by leftist governments, conservatives’ linkages to civil society organisations, and internal unity within conservative parties, gave rise to distinct legitimation strategies among conservatives.