Political Research Of Taiwan Populism

Domestic political scientists haven't paid enough attentions on populism and populist politics,which is indeed worthy of study.Firstly,populism universally exists in contemporary society and no one can escapes from that.The only difference is extent,beginning and inducement.Secondly,the concept of populism is so obscure that it is extremely versatile.So we should be vigilant against a public confusion between populism and democracy.Inappropriately mistaking populism as democracy always happen in democratic transition period,as the level of democracy is so low to recognize it.While,populism can still distribute in place with through democratic institutions and developed level of democracy.Because in this situation,democracy can't help citizens figure out troubles of their life,or they are impatient to waiting for democracy to work out.Thus,we can make a conclusion that populist politics can happen wherever and whenever.This thesis takes Taiwan as an example to study the political behavior of populism with political psychology analysis approach and political elites analysis approach as analytical frameworks.This thesis considers that populist politics include two elements,which are people and 'elites.People,elites,relations between people and elites,motivations and behavior of populist politicians can explain why citizens respond the populist calls and what populism can bring to populists.This thesis holds a view that populist politics is political measures political elites take to overturn the existing dominance hierarchy and to seize power.Populist movement is a pattern of manifestation of populist politics,which actually is a revolt of existing institutions but in name of people.Furthermore,we discuss the specific circumstance of political populism in Taiwan.The concept frame of We and Others can illustrate how the interaction of people and elites works in the progress of populism,and how they affect the populist issue,which mainly include ethnic groups.The next three chapters are followed times order,dividing progress of seizing power into three phrases:power revolt phrase,power consolidation phrase,and power competition phrase.Power revolt phrase is the reign of Li Denghui.It was the time that Li Denghui had built his power kingdom,that Democratic Progressive Party had been bom and had developed,that Chen Shuipian had lured more backers.This phase of populist politics is dominated by populists who have strong personal style.The second phase is power consolidation of local politician phrase,when Chen Shuipian and Democratic Progressive Party in power.As the power structure changing,populist politicians using different populist strategy,mainly for referendum,this narrow direct democracy style.The referendum was going to figure out cross-straits issues,in that the crisis of identity transfer its point from ethnic identity into national identity.The third phase is the Ma Yingjiu-era,when various competitors entered the race of power.At the moment,citizens focus on We rather than Others,so revolting elites and calling for equality are more important than revolting institution.Besides,critical rhetoric was used frequently by populist politicians who are out of office.Generally speaking,revolting power contains three parts:revolting institution,revolting elites and calling for equality.Populists win the power through populist measures and populist political styles.Forms of direct democracy like referendum are praised highly by populist.Critical rhetoric is the basic language for populist.Election is the occasion where populist politics happens most frequently,and is a battlefield for fights among political elites.From what has been discussed above,we can make a forecast about the future of populism that it will fade away eventually,as it has its own difficulties in the progress of development.That is our opportunity to return to democracy and rationality.