Student Mobilization in Taiwan: Civil Society and Its Discontents

Abstract

Perhaps the most stunning case of a peaceful and rapid political transformation in recent years may be found in a land also known for its economic miracles-the Republic of China (ROC) on Taiwan. In roughly one decade, Taiwan moved from being a single-party state under the strictures of martial law to a multiparty democracy with direct legislative and presidential elections. Contemporaneously, such civil liberties as freedom of speech, assembly, and the press became realities. How did these dramatic changes occur with so little violent conflict and in such a short span of time? Theorists of democratic transitions emphasize the importance of an initial opening of political opportunity, giving rise to a civil society-defined here to mean group formation outside the sphere of the state-that further propels liberalizing change. By taking a close empirical look at autonomous group formation on university campuses in Taiwan during the ROC's period of political liberalization, this study shows that the development of civil society is a highly contingent affair deeply intertwined with a continually shifting political environment and not predictable a priori. The case of Taiwan's student movement illustrates that while a political opening in a repressive regime makes the formation of civil society possible, the construction of such is in no way automatic or natural. Overcoming decades of the stifling of civil society is a slow and haphazard affair. Further, when a ruling regime penetrates far into society, the political atmosphere can not simply be moved from closed to open. Even after an initial opening, continuing subtle shifts in the political environment may mold, and be molded by, the struggling emergence of a civil society. In Taiwan, just as liberalization at the national level did not inevitably spread to the universities,