Lei Zhen And Social Movements In Post-WWⅡ Taiwan

In the post-World Warâ…¡history of Taiwan, Lei Zhen played an indelible role either in spreading the thought of democracy and freedom or in participating in the reform-promoting social and political movements. An overview of his entire life finds him a persevering political enlightenment thinker and social activist devoted to promoting democratic constitutionalism, from being "a constitutional activist" in 1940s, to being an enlightenment thinker of democracy and freedom in 1950s, and to being an activist of "party politics" in 1960s. In the post-war development of social politics in Taiwan, Lei Zhen played a transitional role. Free China, established by Lei Zhen, passed judgment on political affairs and offering constructive proposals in the form of public forum, becoming one of the origins of democratic movements in Taiwan. As an advocate and practitioner, Lei Zhen initiated the significant role the intellectuals played in promoting social reform in that historical context. His social thoughts and political views shed light on the later democratic movements in Taiwan. The political goals he appealed for were taken as important propositions of the subsequent democratic movements in Taiwan. With time going by, most of his political views were accepted, which is the very evidence to prove his significance in the development of post-war political movements in Taiwan.Lei Zhen's importance in the post-war history of Taiwan is reflected in both thought and practice. His propositions about democratic constitutionalism and his participation in democratic movements played an even more crucial role. Therefore, this dissertation does the research by way of "the history of thoughts", making a historical analysis of the evolution of Lei Zhen's thoughts in post-war Taiwan. In addition, based on Mannheim's knowledge sociology, particularly his relationism, this dissertation focuses more on the interaction between Lei Zhen's propositions and the historical conditions in Taiwan at that time, and attempts to define their position in the historical development of social movements in post-war Taiwan. Plus, this research adopts Durkeim viewpoint. It analyzes Lei Zhen's social thoughts and the evolution of his social practice as well as the development of social movements in post-war Taiwan from the perspective of social and political changes. And it mainly uses Tilly's political process model, McCarthy and Zald's resource mobilization theory and Kornhauser's mass society theory as supporting theories.This research is centered on an influential figure, adopts historical data analysis and let the data speak for themselves, coupled with the analysis of social background. It mainly uses Lei Zhen's personal works and articles and other documents to explore his interaction with social context. It also explores his change from spreading his view of democratic constitutionalism to forming a party to implement it, which set off social movements across the whole island and Opposition movements to check Kuomintang, so as to consider and assess his position and influence on social movements in post-war Taiwan.This dissertation consists of seven chapters:Chapter 1 is an introduction. It briefly introduces the motive, current situation, method and structure of this research.Chapter 2 analyzes and discusses the social context of post-war Taiwan and the factors that would influence Lei Zhen's later social propositions and practice, including Taiwan's ambition to rise and the appearance of social fissure, and the society characterized by "weak ruling party but strong non-ruling party" after Kuomintang retreated to Taiwan. It further discusses the reconstruction of Kuomintang's authority and the wide spread social complaints it caused, which made possible the practice of social movements.Chapter 3 gives an account of Lei Zhen's life and discusses his switch of roles. It begins with a discussion of the influence his educational and political experiences had on him. And then it analyzes how he chose to switch from being a political participant and discusser to being mainly a political discusser, when faced with the political change in which Kuomintang was defeated and underwent a reformation after the party came to Taiwan between 1949 and 1954. In other words, Lei Zhen had changed from a core political figure into a core social figure.Chapter 4 expounds Free China and Lei Zhen's social thoughts. It firstly explains the aim and the development of his Free China. Then it expounds his social thoughts from his propagation of the idea of freedom and democracy, his view of political structure and his attitude toward basic human rights. It also analyzes his thoughts characterized by his emphasis on personal freedom and freedom of speech under constitutionalism. All these resulted from his reflections while interacting with the social environment and demonstrated the critical spirits of intellectuals.Chapter 5 discusses Lei Zhen's social practice and the price he paid for it. By expounding the formation and evolution of his Opposition ideology, this chapter explains how he, besides advocating the Opposition in terms of ideology, started organizing the Opposition and participated in local voting in order to bring about the political situation of "competing oligarchy" and rule out the possibility of one-party dictatorship by Kuomintang, as well as his efforts to break down people's province complex and localism, which eventually sent him to prison and led to the closedown of Free China.Chapter 6 deals with the change of direction in social movements after Lei Zhen. It firstly points out Lei Zhen was still concerned about democratic constitutionalism and continued to put forward proposals in his late years after ten-year suffering in prison, which shows his constant insistence on democratic constitutionalism. Then it examines the economic development, the change of social structure and the accumulation of social conflicts in Taiwan which resulted in the boom of various street movements. In addition, it analyses the evolution of political ecology and the rise of "extra-party power", which made social movements in Taiwan diversified and develop in an organized way. In a word, the post-Lei Zhen period witnessed a change from rational to irrational social movements in Taiwan.Chapter 7 reaches a conclusion:as an advocate and practitioner of democratic constitutionalism and a starter of democratic movements, Lei Zhen played a critical role in the post-war history of social movements in Taiwan.