Social movements in Taiwan's democratic transition: linking activists to the changing political environment

Abstract

Accounts of Taiwan's transition from authoritarianism to democracy frequently emphasize the role of political leadership in that historical shift. But as numerous scholars have demonstrated, just as important (perhaps more so) was the impact of social movements and politics outside the KMT (the then ruling Kuomintang or Nationalist Party). Yun Fan's book on social movements in Taiwan's democratic transition offers a valuable empirical and theoretical contribution to this literature, and to studies of social movements more generally. As the book's subtitle suggests, Fan's focus is on the role of activists in social movements. This might seem an obvious place to start, but Fan argues that the literature on social movements has generally paid too much attention to political opportunity structure. In other words, the tendency has been to see the wider political environment as being the dominant variable in shaping participation in social movements and the strategies and tactics that...