Divergent paths of democratization: Comparative study of Taiwan and South Korea (Taiwan, China, Korea)

This dissertation examines the patterns and causes of national differences of democratic development processes in Taiwan and South Korea. I focus on three main tasks. First, I identify how the modes of transitions were different. Second, I examine why these different transition paths occurred by focus on the prior regime type, political society and civil society. Third, I analyze the prospects for democratic consolidation.; First, I argue that Taiwan's transition was a top-down, regime controlled, slow, elite-dominated, and unilaterally imposed transition. Taiwan's transition was implemented from relatively strong and secure authoritarian regime rather than forced upon the regime by broad social mobilization. On the contrary, South Korean case was a bottom-up, mass ascendent, fast, and multilaterally compromised transition. Extensive popular mobilization from below forced the regime elite to make a compromise with the opposition.; Second, I argue that Taiwan's transition was caused by the quasi-Leninist party-state with no prior democratic experience and the weak political and civil society, while South Korea's transition was caused by the military authoritarianism with prior democratic experiences and strong political and civil society. In Taiwan there was no opposition party and elections were limited to local levels. Moreover, civil society was deeply penetrated by the KMT and the labor class was further weakened by decentralized industrial structures. On the contrary, in South Korea opposition parties were legally allowed to function and the elections were regularly held under authoritarian regime. With prior democratic experience civil society was strong and the labor class was strengthened by the high degree of industrial concentration. Finally, following the path-dependent approach, I argue that the prospect for democratic consolidation is more complicated in Taiwan than in South Korea.