The Political Participation of Taiwan's Labor: Public Perception and Legitimation

Abstract

Many countries have undergone political transitions since the third wave of democratization began in the 1970s. Political regimes across the world have, consequently, faced questions regarding their legitimacy. Taiwan underwent its third transition of political power in 2016. In the course of this international wave of democratization, what role has Taiwanese labor played? Under what conditions could political participation by Taiwanese labor take place? It is usually believed that institutionalization and regulation is a key part of democratization in political transitions. It is believed that citizens' ability for civic participation increases in the course of a democratic transition. One should expect workers to have greater means of political participation, as reflected in institutionalization and regulation. It is thought that Taiwan's democratic transition has been under way for over thirty years. Significant economic growth has been seen during this period, as seen in the statistics. But if we divide up the population into members of management and workers, we can see that structurally, the majority of the population consists of workers, whether this is defined as workers who maintain subsistence living or in terms of political participation. The results of growth in the national economy have not trickled down to them. This is a contradiction that has happened in the cause of gradual democratization. Embedded democracy theory provides one explanation for this. In the process of democratization, a country must have open and transparent elections with rule of law, civil rights, horizontal accountability, and pursue external and internal embeddedness. If elections are simply held for the sake of maintaining political legitimacy, without means of social participation in elections or a system of separation of powers, that country has not truly advanced to the stage of rule of law. The institutionalization of democracy may cover up a lack of civil participation, even if externally, this appears to be a high degree of institutionalized legal regulation. An institutionalized democracy may yet be a defective democracy or a defunct democracy. Workers are a significant part of society. Moreover, industrial relations are a basis for economic participation. Under the current national system, on the one hand, the political system derived from the legal system has been institutionalized. On the other hand, the culture and habits of the social system have also become standardized and regulated. Under the regulation of both, we can examine what role that workers play. The following dissertation draws on strategic and conflictive groups' theory (SKoG) in order to analyze the roles played by social units in the labor relations system in Taiwan. The changes undergone by these social units in the course of historical changes will be analyzed in terms of embedded democracy theory. This will reveal the mutually interactive relations of the current historical outlook. Our conclusion reveals that in Taiwan, workers' mutually interactive relation with the closure of physical and human geography, the "island closure", has developed under an institutionalized democracy. But whether during the authoritarian period, in the course of democratic transition, or during Taiwan's democratic consolidation, workers have faced limitations as well as shifts in political participation. Workers have not had their demands met. Many have been forced to compromise by political elites, leading to a strengthening of internal and exterior embeddedness. This phenomenon has reduced the possibilities for workers to participate in politics. This exclusion of workers from institutionalization and legalization raises concerns regarding Taiwan's democratization, leading to an inability to have equal relations between workers and capital.