Taiwan at a Tipping Point by John F. Copper

Abstract

Reviewed by: Taiwan at a Tipping Point by John F. Copper Yi-En "Mike" Tso (bio) John F. Copper. Taiwan at a Tipping Point. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2018. viii 251 pp. Hardcover $100.00, ISBN 978-1-4985-6969-9. e-Book $95.00, ISBN 978-1-4985-6970-5. As the democratic country in East Asia, the history of democratic development in Taiwan has become a critical issue in world politics. Having more citizen participation in public affairs and the rise of populism both make Taiwan a special case of political science research. In this book, the author tries to answer the following "big questions" about democracy in Taiwan: How far has Taiwan gone in the democratization process? Has the political culture been altered or not? Do party politics (and turnover) have positive impacts on Taiwanese democracy? What are the challenges and threats to Taiwanese democracy, and does Taiwan also face democracy decline as do other countries? In order to answer these questions, the author reviews the history of Taiwanese democracy briefly from 1949 to 2008, with the end of the "Chen (Shui-bian) era," as the first step. As does the title of the first chapter, "The Democratic Progressive Party Returns to Power," this book describes how the Democracy Progressive Party (DPP) returned to power in 2016 after its tremendous failure in 2008. From the author's view, several factors may help to explain the resurgence: economy, populism, identity politics, Taiwan-US-China relations, and President Ma Ying-jeou's leadership (p. 74). The economy, the United States, and China factors all played critical roles in the DPP's fall in the 2008 presidential election as well. After reviewing critical political and social events in Taiwan from 2008 (Ma Ying-jeou's administration) to 2016 (Tsai Ing-wen's winning of the presidential election), the author offers his own views on issues such as the domestic (e.g., economy and social movements) and foreign (the United States and China) factors affecting the election results in Taiwan. The author also portrays several critical Taiwanese political leaders (presidents and candidates in the general and local elections) to give a more comprehensive understanding of Taiwanese democracy. The author's opinion toward the 2016 presidential election result can be used to conclude this book: "Taiwan's democracy is alive and well . . . Taiwan may be seen as a model" (p. 154). The author offers several valuable insights on Taiwan's democratic history. In chapter 2, the author mentions that in the late Chen era, there was a generation gap between young and elderly Taiwanese. The young people cared more about job opportunities and less about KMT authoritarianism than in the past. This gap helped KMT presidential candidate (Ma) to win the young generation's support in 2008. However, the phenomenon was reversed in 2016. The young generation complained about having fewer job opportunities and the KMT's antidemocracy activities in its authoritarian era (from 1949 to 2000). [End Page 348] This change also contributed to Tsai's winning of the 2016 Taiwan Presidential Election. As the author observes, the two "elephants in the room," China and the United States, play critical roles in affecting Taiwanese politics and election results. The cross-strait and US-China-Taiwan triangular relationships deeply affected Taiwanese people's voting behavior and their confidence in the ruling party. Taiwanese political science researchers sometimes find that many Western political science theories may not help to fully analyze political phenomena in Taiwanese politics. As the author mentions in the book, some theories from the West may not help to fully explain Taiwanese politics (p. 34). For example, one theory suggests that the voters tend to vote according to their pocketbooks, however, based on the author's observation, "this theory applies differently to local elections as compared to a national election and to the present as opposed to the past" (p. 113). The author does not expand this argument in the following paragraphs but the answer can be seen in the conclusion of chapter 2. In his arguments about the 2014 election results, the author states: "The economy, as noted, was the underlying problem. It was showing many signs of improving...