Taiwanese Polity In The Twenty First Century

As we look to enter the second decade of the 21st century, Taiwan’s quest for identity remains the most contentious issue in the domestic arena of Taiwanese politics. From here, it spills over into the cross-Strait relationship and impacts on regional and global security. Whether Taiwan is a nation state or whether Taiwan has any claim to be a nation-state and how Taiwan should relate to "China" are issues which have long been hotly debated on the island, although it seems that much of this debate is now more focused on finding an adequate strategy to deal with the Beijing government than on the legitimacy of Taiwan’s claim to sovereignty as the Republic of China. The collection of chapters in this book shed light on very different aspects of Taiwan’s current state of identity formation from historical, political, social and economic perspectives, both domestically, and globally. As such it will be invaluable reading for students and scholars of Taiwan studies, politics, history and society, as well as those interested in cross-Strait relations, Chinese politics, and Chinese international relations.

Canadian and US China scholars examine American-Chinese relations and the Taiwan question, 21st-century Taiwan culture as internationalization with local characteristics, the evolution of social welfare programs in Taiwan and the new administration, the Military Dependent Village generation in the 2000's, Taiwanese sovereignty re-interpreted in light of the relations across the Taiwan Strait, significant paradoxes in contemporary Chinese Communist theoretical discourse, the transformation of local culture in Taiwan's search for democratization, and the prospects of Taiwan's bipolar multiparty system. The text is double spaced. There is no index. Annotation : 2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com).

This unique volume highlights Taiwan's ongoing efforts to mediate between competing political actors, a means to ensure domestic stability and national security without severely affecting its continuous economic growth and sovereign status in the international society. Taiwan's Politics in the 21st Century concentrates on three general areas: domestic politics, political economy, and external relations. Written by prominent scholars in the field, including John Hsieh, Shelley Rigger, Cal Clark, Alex Tan, Joseph Wong, T Y Wang, Quansheng Zhao, Guoli Liu, and Chyungly Lee. It also provides an overview of Taiwan's process of democratic consolidation, unravels dynamic interactions among various domestic and international actors in policy design and implementation, and explores future challenges to Taiwan thus leaving readers with a better understanding of the political complexity of Taiwan's attempts to strengthen its democratic governance and institutions.

The March 2000 presidential election was an important milestone in the democratic development of Taiwan, with the Kuomintang turned out of power after five decades of control and replaced by the Democratic Progressive Party. This book address the variety of effects that Taiwan's democratic development and the election will have on domestic policy in the region. Part one looks at trends and changes in Taiwan's politics and analyzes the outcome of the March 2000 election. The chapters in part two discuss the international implications of Taiwan's democratic evolution for a variety of issues, including political, economic and security relations on both sides of the Taiwan strait; Japan's foreign policy in the region; U.S. foreign policy in the region; and peace and security in Southeast Asia. The challenges and prospects for continued democratic consolidation and the implications and lessons for the PRC and Southeast Asia are also explored.

Written by an impressive line up of contributors, this book analyzes Taiwan’s economic and political achievements, and asks whether it is possible to identify through the experience of a single nation – Taiwan – the makings of a replicable model.

The last decade of the twentieth century witnessed rapid changes not only in global politics but also in Taiwan's quests for new identities. The notorious martial law was lifted in July 1987, and long-repressed calls for democratization began to be heard that caught worldwide attention. In tandem with economic transformation, the entire world of thought in Taiwan underwent significant changes. Both economic and ideological restructuring have been basic elements of transformation in postwar Taiwan. However, rapid democratization has opened a Pandora's box, and stirred a whirlwind of discord. This volume elaborates on the "where from" and the "where to" of the Taiwan transformation and attempts to answer such questions as: Is the old Taiwanese work ethic just a relic of the past? Is Taiwan going to become an Armageddon of ideological wars? Chapters deal with the vicissitudes of Taiwanese nostalgia for cultural China; postwar Taiwan in historical perspective, in particular the rise and fall of the agrarian culture; the transformation of farmers' social consciousness in the period 1950-1970; Confucianism in postwar Taiwan: historical, philosophical, and sociological; the case of Hsu Fu-kuan, which provides an epic case of the intertwining of cultural crisis with personal crisis; the development and metamorphoses of Taiwanese consciousness in the unfolding political context, the awakening of the "self"; and finally "mutual historical understanding" as the basis for Taiwan-Mainland relations in the twenty-first century. Taiwan in Transformation seeks to show that historical insights extrapolated from an understanding of history are essential for grasping and solving the basic problems facing Taiwan at present, including the Taiwan-Mainland relationship in the twenty-first century. It will be of interest to Chinese area specialists, sociologists, and historians.

This book brings together a group of experts on Taiwan who attempt to analyse change on this dynamic island during the whole of the twentieth century. Thus in contrast to many works on Taiwan, this book shows just how important the Japanese colonial antecedents were to the formation of today's Taiwan and help us to understand the complexity of the problems this island will face in the twenty-first century.