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Participa Participatory Democracy and the Disadvantaged Factors: The Taiwan and Czech Cases
Abstract
life in new democracies, especially after long-term deprivation of political freedom. I emphasize
the experiences of Central and Eastern European countries or the post-communist countries, especially the Czech case, and make a comparison with Taiwan. The disadvantaged factors in this paper at least involve social indifference, corruption, powerless for the politics and no trust for governments and the general society. The factors of development in politics and the economy do not necessarily guarantee the participation in civic participation, which is regarded as a prominent component of civil society and democracy. There are still many other factors that influence the consolidation of civil society and democracy in the new democracies, and the legacy of prior regimes is one of the most decisive. Due to the degree of overall political and social control during the period of authoritarian or communist regimes, people removed themselves from politics, so their trust in politics is diminished. When confronting the bureaucratic system, people become powerless, or unwilling to concern themselves with politics. Therefore, the legacy of prior regimes, both authoritarian
and communist, consists of political distrust, a sense of powerlessness and political indifference. During the period of democratization, corruption is also a serious problem, and corruption often brings about further political distrust and apathy toward politics. Research instruments involve international surveys including ISSP Citizenship 2004, Taiwan and Czech domestic election records and some other surveys like CVVM in the Czech Republic.
The examination of the Taiwan and Czech cases confirms the negative correlation between the effects of prior-regime legacy and civic participation. Those who have high levels of political distrust, sense of powerlessness, and political indifference are more unwilling to participate in civic associations and actions to express social and political concerns, and tend to shy away from civic participation.
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DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.2478/sectio-2013-0002
Date of publication: 2013-04-19 00:00:00
Date of submission: 2015-07-19 00:13:47
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