Gender and Transitional Justice and Democratization in Taiwan

Session Submission Type: Full Paper Panel

Session Description

In recent years, a burgeoning literature on state repression in autocracies focuses on how dictators control the masses by employing coercive institutions and secret police. Although studies suggest that the use of repression can help dictators deal with threats from the opposition, repressive practices and state violence, on the other hand, might backfire and destabilize the regimes. However, due to the issues of authoritarian secrecy, political scientists know relatively little about the relations between autocratic leaders, coercive institutions, and repression.

In Taiwan, the Kuomintang (KMT) regime imposed martial law between 1949 and 1987, restricting civil rights and political participation to secure the authoritarian rule of Chiang Kai-shek and his son Chiang Ching-kuo. The KMT established various party organs and security agencies to target political dissidents, and over ten thousand victims were arrested, tortured, imprisoned, and even killed. The period is also called the White Terror in order to describe the massive repression against civilians under an anti-communist dictatorship. Yet, the use of repression by the KMT regime and its long-term effects on political attitudes in Taiwanese society remain unclear because of the difficulties to access government archives and quantitative data previously.

This theme panel includes three papers to investigate the aspects of repression in an authoritarian context using different methodologies. Specifically, the papers will discuss the following questions: (1) What determines how dictators employ repression? (2) Is repression the most effective means to keep them in power? And, (3) how does past state repression affect contemporary political attitudes in post-authoritarian societies? Taken together, the papers aim to shed light on the understanding of authoritarian politics and state repression both theoretically and empirically.

Sub Unit

• Related Groups / Conference Group on Taiwan Studies

Individual Presentations

• Designing Coercive Institutions: KMT Security Agencies during White Terror - Lin Kirin PU, Tulane University

• How Do Dictators Repress? The Case of Taiwan’s Pre-democratic Era - Yi-Jhan Shaka Li, Tunghai University; Dennis Lu-Chung Weng, Sam Houston State University

• Moral Legacy of Negative Heritages: Taiwan’s Historical Sites of Injustice - Chen-Yu Lee, University of Essex

• Framing as Localized Practices: Analyzing Policy Frames of Gay Rights in Taiwan - Shih-chan Dai, University of California Los Angeles

Chair

• Dennis Lu-Chung Weng Sam Houston State University

Discussants

• Charles K.S. Wu University of South Alabama

• Wei-Ting Yen Franklin & Marshall College