East Asian Democracies Research Articles

Democratic Ceilings: The Long Shadow of Nationalist Polarization in East Asia

East Asian democracies, long seen as the success stories of the Third Wave, have curiously co-existed with illiberal partisan competition. We argue that such patterns are symptoms of long-standing democratic stagnation, rather than democratic regress. We trace the entrenchment of illiberal competition to nationalist polarization in the early phase of democratization—a common phenomenon in Third Wave democracies where nation-building and democratization pressures coincided. Party polarization can take many forms, but when it centers on mutually exclusive nationalist visions from the outset, it redefines the end of democratic competition as state capture and justifies whatever means necessary, even those that violate democratic norms, to achieve it. Through a comparative analysis of Taiwan and South Korea, we show that when democratization tends to institutionalize, rather than alleviate, pre-existing nationalist conflicts, it can seed endemic barriers to the habituation of democratic norms, imposing a ceiling on democratic progress.

Economic Inequality and Political Participation in East Asian Democracies: The Role of Perceived Income Inequality and Intergenerational Mobility

This study examines how perceptions of economic inequality affect political participation focusing on East Asian democracies. It develops nuanced predictions on how perceptions of income inequality and social mobility and their interplay affect individuals’ engagement in various types of political activities in six East Asian democracies. Using the fourth wave of the Asian Barometer Survey, we examine novel arguments built upon the existing inequality-participation nexus. Our analysis suggests that inequality is a multifaceted concept, and the mechanisms of the inequality-participation nexus could vary depending on the regional, socioeconomic, and political context.

Immigrant Incorporation in East Asian Democracies. By Erin Chung. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2020. 270p. $105.00 cloth, $35.99 paper.

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All Are Not Equal: Taiwanese Public Opinion on Southeast Asian Immigration

Abstract What influences Taiwanese public opinion on immigration? Taiwan faces the same immigration challenges as many other developed nations, where the demand for immigrant workers produces a domestic backlash. Our study addresses to what extent public opinions on immigration are influenced by two factors: the skills of immigrants and their place of origin. Our results show, besides the preference for skilled labour, that public opinion on the three Southeast Asian immigrant groups varies considerably, with the strongest negative reaction to Indonesian migrants. As Taiwan prides its progress on human rights among East Asian democracies, the results suggest the need for targeted policy efforts to overcome public biases towards Southeast Asian immigrants.

Immigrant Incorporation in East Asian Democracies

Immigrant Incorporation in East Asian Democracies

Populism in East Asian Democracies: Report on the International Lecture Series of the Institute of East Asian Studies, University of Duisburg-Essen, Germany (Oct 2020–Feb 2021)

Abstract Diagnosing a gap in our knowledge on populist phenomena in East Asian democracies, especially the lack of attention paid to the region by comparative studies, the organisers of the online lecture series ‘Populism in East Asian Democracies’ (PinEAD) brought together small but substantial research on East Asia by inviting presentations by nine experts, three each on Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan. Their findings showed how different phenomena and actors analysed as populists in East Asian democracies are from those in Europe or the Americas. They also highlighted how heterogeneous the group of politicians referred to as ‘East Asian populists’ is. While, on an abstract level, most East Asian populists are similar, in that they appeal to voters discontented with the democratically elected ruling parties and executives and promise to govern in a way more favourable to ‘the people’, they do so in ways that differentiate them from the standard style of political campaigning and rhetoric in their respective country.

Stable Support for Democracy in East and Southeast Asia? Examining Citizens’ Trust in Democratic Institutions

Recent democratic regressions and crises suggest democracy is at risk across East and Southeast Asia. One of the factors that can determine democratic stability are citizens’ attitudes. While previous research has concentrated on support for democracy-in-principle, this contribution argues that it is political trust, i.e. support for democracy-in-practice, which is crucial for democratic stability. For democracies to be stable, political trust should be high as well as rooted in long-term factors like liberal democratic value orientations or social trust to protect it from short-term fluctuations following economic crises or political scandals. This contribution therefore examines not only the current levels and development of political trust but also whether it is influenced more by long-term factors (liberal democratic value orientations, social trust) or short-term factors (economic performance evaluations, incumbent support). The empirical analysis shows political trust in five East and Southeast Asian democracies (Indonesia, Japan, Mongolia, South Korea, Taiwan) to be mostly mediocre and primarily dependent on economic performance evaluations and incumbent support. Among the five democracies, citizens in Japan appear most resilient to democratic regressions; on the other hand, Taiwanese democracy seems least equipped to master future crises.

Democracy After Virtueand the Circumstances of Modern Politics

<i>Democracy After Virtue</i>and the Circumstances of Modern Politics

동아시아 민주주의 3국 시민들의 복지 태도 결정 요인에 대한 연구: 아시아 가치와 제도 신뢰의 영향을 중심으로

동아시아 민주주의 3국 시민들의 복지 태도 결정 요인에 대한 연구: 아시아 가치와 제도 신뢰의 영향을 중심으로

경제적 낙관주의와 복지 태도: 동아시아 3국의 사례

경제적 낙관주의와 복지 태도: 동아시아 3국의 사례

INTERNET USE AND PROTEST POLITICS IN SOUTH KOREA AND TAIWAN

AbstractThis study examines the association between Internet use and protest politics in South Korea and Taiwan, using secondary data from the sixth wave (2010–14) of the World Values Survey. The data show that Internet use is positively associated with low-cost protest acts, like signing a petition. Internet use is also correlated with the willingness to consider higher-cost actions such as attending demonstrations and joining in boycotts. But it does not appear to consistently increase actual protests of this sort. Discussion is made to address comparable opportunity structures for protest politics in the two East Asian democracies, where the Internet is deeply integrated into the country's political landscape.

Migration Industries and the State: Guestwork Programs in East Asia

Studies of migration industries have demonstrated the critical role that border-spanning businesses play in international mobility. To date, most research has focused on meso-level entrepreneurial initiatives that operate in a legal gray area under a state that provides an environment for their growth or decline. Extending this work, the present article advances a taxonomy of the ways states partner with migration industries based on the nature of their relationship (formal or informal) and the type of actor involved (for-profit or non-profit). The analysis focuses on low-paid temporary migrant work programs — schemes that require substantial state involvement to function — and examines cases from the East Asian democracies with strong economies that have become net importers of migrants: Taiwan, Japan, and South Korea. The conclusion, incorporating cases beyond Asia, explicates the properties and limits of each arrangement based on the degree of formality and importance of profit.

Still a new democracy? Individual-level effects of social trust on political trust in South Korea

ABSTRACTThe social capital theory holds that there is a positive relationship between social and political trust; however, despite the prominence of this postulation, this relationship has often been disputed among political scientists. While recent studies on advanced democracies have shown a strong positive relationship between social and political trust, studies on East Asian democracies, which previously showed a weak or negative relation, remain scant, separating these countries into their own category of new democracies. The motivation of this study is based on the importance of revisiting the relationship between social and political trust using recent data from one such country—South Korea—to determine the nature of this previously studied negative or weak relationship. The results of this study indicate that generalized social trust in South Korea is positively associated with political trust. This result is in line with recent findings in advanced democracies. While this positive relationship is consistent and significant across models, a greater portion of political trust is explained by economic and political performance, including factors such as the economy, corruption, inequality, and the welfare system, making institutional performance a critical predictor of political trust.

Executive capacity to control legislatures and presidential choice of cabinet ministers in East Asian democracies

How do presidents in new democracies choose cabinet ministers to accomplish their policy goals? Contrary to existing studies explaining the partisan composition of the cabinet with institutional characteristics, such as formal authority, we argue that the broader political context surrounding the president's ability to control the legislature can affect cabinet partisanship. By analyzing original data on cabinet formation in all presidential systems in East Asia since democratization, we find that when presidents are more likely to be dominant in executive–legislative relations, they have less concern about legislative support and more leeway to focus on policy performance by appointing nonpartisan cabinet members. This analysis suggests that understanding cabinet partisanship requires a view of cabinet appointments as a trade‐off between securing legislative support and managing policy performance, and the scope of this compromise depends on the strength of the president vis‐à‐vis the legislature.

Executive control of bureaucracy and presidential cabinet appointments in East Asian democracies

AbstractThis article examines the role of cabinet appointments in controlling the bureaucracy in presidential democracies. I demonstrate how administrative challenges stemming from the structure of the bureaucracy shape presidential choice of ministers. Analyzing a sample of four East Asian cases from 1986 through 2013, I find that presidents are more likely to select ministers from the civil service as bureaucracies are more professionalized, controlling for several political factors. Further evidence from qualitative interviews and case studies suggests that, in professionalized systems equipped with a sizable pool of talent but lacking responsiveness, presidents tend to promote ideologically aligned senior civil servants. However, in politicized systems, where presidents easily obtain responsiveness but face a low level of competence, policy experts tend to be selected from outside the bureaucracy. My findings have important implications for the regulatory governance and state capacity of East Asia, demonstrating the value of balancing between responsiveness and competence.

The Origins of Political Trust in East Asian Democracies: Psychological, Cultural, and Institutional Arguments

AbstractWhile the importance of social and political trust has been well documented, there is a lack of scholarly consensus over where trust originates. This article tests three theoretical arguments – social-psychological, social-cultural, and political institutional – on the origin of political trust against three East Asian democracies (Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan). The empirical analysis from the AsiaBarometer survey illustrates that political institutional theory best explains the origin of political trust in East Asian cases. Citizens of these East Asian democracies have a high level of political trust when they believe that their governments perform well in management of the national economy and political representation of elected officials. Meanwhile, social-psychological and social-cultural theories explain the origins of social trust, but not political trust. The evidence reveals that socially trusting people are not automatically politically trusting; social trust and political trust originate from different sources and do not transform from one to the other.

Labyrinth of Post-Colonial Democracy Through Sunflower Movement of Taiwan

This study surveys the Sunflower Movement (March 18, 2014 ~ April 10, 2014), a youth movement in Taiwan, from a different post‐colonial perspective as compared to Korea.BR Since the global financial crisis and new cold war in East Asia, young people have started to become more proactive as voters of representative politics and as sovereign entities. Based on the dystopian diagnosis of ‘Josun escape’ and ‘ghost island,’ the young adults of Korea and Taiwan have desired to move beyond authoritarian developmentalism since it settled in the post‐colonial era. Although both countries have experienced similar situations in terms of politics and economics, moving from the old to new empires of Japan and the United States, the countries have slightly different contexts, such as ‘pro‐Japanese.’BR The reason is that in Taiwan, the Cross‐Strait Service Trade Agreement’s current criticism of ‘forgetting the homeland and flattering Japan’ is coming from the same context as that of the criticism of the young people opposed to the sudden ‘pro‐Chinese’ policies. This also relates to the opposition from the youth for writing guidelines for middle & high school textbooks which revised the textbooks by merging Taiwanese history and Chinese history, emphasizing Japanese colonial period. However, these young people were influenced by a strong Taiwanese identity which emerged in the 2000s, and subsequently, they did not agree with non‐democratic plans being pursued without public consent. Also, they are banding together with radical worldwide youth movements protesting against the regression of East Asian democracies that have been holding economic security hostage with economic excuses.BR In summary, Korea needs to start thoroughly rethinking about how to move forward within the current democratic framework similar to the young Taiwanese people navigating through the East Asian post‐colonial labyrinth by recalling the old historical semantic network.

Democratic consolidation in Taiwan in comparative perspective

Taiwan has been one of the most successful East Asian countries in transitioning from authoritarian rule to liberal democracy. Using a wide range of survey data, this paper examines the process of democratic consolidation in Taiwan from 1996 to 2012, and benchmarks the country’s progress with other East Asian democracies, third wave democracies, and established democracies. The results show that positive regime evaluations have been generally stable since the mid-1990s, although efficacy is slightly lower than is found elsewhere. Party attachments among the mass public have increased incrementally, against the international trends. The level of polarization within the party system has remained consistently low by international standards. Overall, the results confirm that the process of democratic consolidation in Taiwan is close to completion.

Social Networks, Interpersonal Trust, and Support for Democracy in East Asia

Civil society has been regard as a prerequisite for democracy, and social networks and interpersonal trust are two important elements of civil society. By using data from the Asian Barometer Survey, this study investigates the effects of social networks and interpersonal trust on public support for democracy in three East Asian democracies – Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan. The results of statistical analysis show that social networks, rather than interpersonal trust, exert significant positive effects on public support for democracy in Japan and Taiwan. By contrast, it is interpersonal trust to affect public support for democracy in South Korea. Nonetheless, it should also be noted that trust in political institutions, democratic values, and education far outweigh social networks and interpersonal trust to impact public support for democracy in these East Asian democracies.

“Red China” and the “Yellow Peril”: How Ideology Divides Americans over China

Based on a 2011 national survey, I argue that while US conservatives feel somewhat cooler toward the East Asian democracies than US liberals do, they feel much cooler toward China. Greater average conservative than liberal prejudice lingers, cooling attitudes toward the “Yellow Peril” of all Asian countries, but communism is a larger source of ideological differences over China. For cultural, social, economic, and political reasons, conservatives feel substantially cooler than liberals toward both communist countries in general and “Red China” in particular. I conclude by suggesting that with gerrymandering and ongoing ideological sorting, these ideological differences over China on Main Street may come to play a greater role in the making of US China policy.