Democracy (Made in Taiwan) The 'success' State as a Political Theory [Hardcover]

Shih is an outstanding scholar. This book will further consolidate this reputation. More specifically, the book speaks directly to hotly contested terrain (both in the realm of Taiwanese politics and the discipline of political science). In it, Shih presses his readers to reconsider what we think we already know about both Taiwanese democratization and democratic theory. In so doing, he proposes a series of challenging questions regarding recent developments on the island (and in the international sphere). This is no small accomplishment, especially as the vast majority of books written about Taiwan fall well short of such a goal.Chih-yu Shih has established himself as one of the most original thinkers in the field of Chinese politics and foreign policy. In Democracy (Made in Taiwan), Shih sets his sights on democracy in Taiwan today, which he finds to be a Potemkin village, a 'disguised failure.' Western Liberalism, furthermore, is complicit in this deceit. Democracy (Made in Taiwan) is sure to provoke debate among those brave enough to confront Shihs arguments.While political scientists generally see Taiwan as a success state because of its economic modernization and political democratization, this book reinterprets Taiwan's success from the Confucian and postcolonial perspectives. Democracy (Made in Taiwan) uncovers the hegemonic construction of the myth of the success state and challenges political scientists to abandon both the liberal-centrism and state-centrism prevailing in the literature of democratization.Democracy (Made in Taiwan) argues that post-colonialism and Confucianism met at the historical moment when democratization and liberalization occurred in Taiwan. The familiar political science standards take little note of either Confucianism or postcolonialism. In fact, these standards are unbalanced, wishful, and Washington-centric, and result in a misunderstanding of Taiwan's performance. The liberal bias blinds international observers to the hybridl=