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Comparing the Impact of National Identity on Democratic Development Between Taiwan and South Korea

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Comparing the Impact of National Identity on Democratic Development Between Taiwan and South Korea This thesis is submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts, East Asian Studies Stanford University Democratization in Divided Nations: Comparing the Impact of National Identity on Democratic Development between Taiwan and South Korea by Kai-wen Tung August 29, 2019 Advisor: Larry Diamond Department: East Asian Studies Approval Signature: Jun Uchida, on behalf of Prof. Diamond Date: August 29, 2019 Democratization in Divided Nations: Comparing the Impact of National Identity on Democratic Development between Taiwan and South Korea Kai-Wen Tung M.A. Candidate, the Center for East Asian Studies Leland Stanford Junior University Taiwan and South Korea are ideal cases for the most similar comparative design. First, the two countries experienced similar democratic transitional processes, and today are regarded as the most successful third-wave democracies in East Asia. Second, they share common historical experiences, including Japanese colonial rule, national divisions caused by the Cold War, the rule of anti-communist authoritarian regimes, and state-led modernization. Among these commonalities, the divided nationhood and the legacy of authoritarianism have shaped identity political cleavages in Taiwan and South Korea, but the two countries have diverged in regard to their national identities and identity politics. In Taiwan, the contending identity between the Taiwanese and Chinese and the division between Taiwan independence and Chinese unification are salient debates between the KMT and the DPP. In contrast, South Korea lacks sharp cleavages over national identity and unification, yet the political divisions based on South Korea-U.S. and North Korea–South Korea relations still play an important role in South Korea’s identity politics. Based on this difference in identity politics, my study hypothesizes that national identity cleavages in Taiwan are more irreconcilable than in South Korea and uses two approaches to investigate whether such nonnegotiable cleavages will bring Taiwan’s democratic development more challenges than South Korea. First, a comparative historical approach will explain the divergent development of national identity cleavages, comparing the role of national identity in Taiwan’s and South Korea’s democratic developments. Second, a quantitative approach will analyze if national identity cleavages correlate with political polarization in Taiwan and South Korea by testing their effect on democratic values. Keywords: Divided Nations, National Identity Cleavages, Identity Politics, Democratic Developments, Political Polarization. i Democratization in Divided Nations: Comparing the Impact of National Identity on Democratic Development between Taiwan and South Korea i I. Introduction 1 II. Relations between National Identity and Democracy 5 III. The comparison between Taiwan and South Korea 9 (1) Comparing historical backgrounds of Taiwan and South Korea 10 (2) Comparing authoritarian regimes in Taiwan and South Korea 16 (3) Comparing democratic transitions in Taiwan and South Korea 25 IV. Comparing the developments of National Identity in Taiwan and South Korea 35 (1) The preparatory phase: the opposition’s challenge to the authoritarian ideology 38 (2) The decision phase: reforms of ex-authoritarian ideologies and the de-radicalization of opposition ideologies 44 (3) The first power rotation: polarization over national identity cleavages 49 (4) The comparative historical institutionalist analysis 54 V. The effect of identity politics on opinions about democracy 58 (1) The research design for Taiwan 58 (2) Data analyses of Taiwan 63 (3) The research design for South Korea 81 (4) Data Analyses of South Korea 84 VI. Conclusion 92 VII. References 97 ii I. Introduction Despite commonalities in history, economy, and politics, the most salient difference between Taiwan and South Korea is that they have diverged in their national identity cleavages and identity politics since democratization. Divided nationhood and political confrontations between the previous authoritarian regimes and the oppositions are common historical background for Taiwan and South Korea, providing similar core issues for identity politics and political cleavages in the two countries. Nevertheless, differences in the legacy of authoritarianism, the situation of national division, and opposition ideology against authoritarian regimes create the dichotomy between Taiwan and South Korea in regard to national unification and national identity. First, the KMT authoritarian rule in Taiwan endured the ethnic conflicts between the Taiwanese and the Chinese mainlanders, while South Korea enjoys ethnic homogeneity and a strong ethnic nationalism based on common blood, ethnicity, and historical experience (Shin 2006). Second, the legitimacy of the ROC in Taiwan has been diplomatically derecognized and replaced by the PRC, challenging the legitimacy of the KMT authoritarian rule. In contrast, the authoritarian regime in South Korea had not been challenged by an external legitimacy crisis or a diplomatic derecognition. Finally, the opposition movement in Taiwan, on the one hand, harnessed Taiwanese identity and Taiwan Independence to 1 challenge the KMT claim on Chinese nationalism and national unification. South Korea’s opposition movements, on the other hand, adopted the pro-North Korean and anti-American ideology to confront the authoritarian ideology based on anti-communism and its alliance with the U.S.. Today Taiwan and South Korea have developed divergent forms of identity politics and national identity cleavages between their ex-authoritarian incumbent parties and the opposition counterparts. In Taiwan, on the one hand, the incumbent party during the authoritarian period, the KMT, supports Chinese nationalism and views the national unification with China as its ultimate goal. On the other hand, the DPP, which was founded by dissidents against the KMT authoritarianism, advocates Taiwanese nationalism and Taiwan independence. In South Korea, the former authoritarian ruling parties, the conservative bloc, inherit the anti-North Korea and pro-U.S. stance from the former authoritarian ideology. In contrast, the progressive parties in South Korea, which had been the oppositions against the authoritarian regime, adopt an anti-American sentiment and sympathy for North Korea. With various similar backgrounds but a critical divergence in national identity cleavages, the most similar design can be applied to the comparative study between Taiwan and South Korea. Taiwan and South Korea share not only a common historical, economic, and political background, but also a parallel experience of 2 democratization since the late 1980s. However, Taiwan and South Korea are distinct in terms of their national identity cleavages, national unification issues, and identity politics. My research will investigate if the difference in national identity cleavages affects democracy developments in Taiwan and South Korea. More specifically, it will compare the divergent development between Taiwanese and South Korean national identity. In this comparison, I will assume that the identity cleavage in Taiwan has been intrinsically more conflicted and irreconcilable than in South Korea, since Taiwan has suffered from ethnic conflicts and the division over national unification, which has not occurred in South Korea. Based on this assumption, I will hypothesize that Taiwan’s democratic developments may suffer from more severe conflicts and polarization than South Korea because of an unbridgeable identity confrontation in Taiwan. The effect of national identity cleavages on democratic developments will be operationalized by a historical explanation and quantitative research. First, the comparative historical approach will analyze the role of identity politics during Taiwan’s and South Korea’s democratic transitions, in which both incumbent and opposition parties utilized national identities as weapons to mobilize political supporters and challenge their opponents. In addition, a historical institutionalism offers an analytical framework to compare critical junctures between Taiwan’s and South Korea’s democratic transitions and explain their effect 3 on identity politics and democratic transitions. Second, the quantitative approach will offer a descriptive analysis of national identity cleavages in Taiwan and South Korea. In Taiwan, the competing identities between Taiwanese or Chinese and debates over unification or independence are core issues of identity cleavages. In South Korea, the identity issues relate to opinions toward national unification and attitudes to the U.S. and North Korea. To examine the effect of identity cleavages on democratic developments, the correlation between the independent variables—national identity cleavages—and the dependent variables—democratic values and perceptions of government performance—will be quantitatively assessed. More specifically, my research will investigate whether people’s evaluation of democracy and governance performance will be affected by the incumbent party’s position on national identity issues. For instance, a Taiwanese interviewee who supports Taiwan independence might have lower opinions toward democratic values and governance when the incumbent is the pro-Chinese KMT from 2008 to 2016. My paper includes the following chapters: first, theories regarding the relation between nationalism and democracy will be reviewed and applied to the comparative analysis. Specifically, I will discuss
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