Participa Participatory Democracy and the Disadvantaged Factors: The Taiwan and Czech Cases

Ter-Hsing Cheng

Resumen


Paper  focuses  on  civic  participation  and  its  disadvantaged  factors  in  civil  society  and  democratic
 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.

Palabras clave


civil  society;  participatory  democracy;  social  distrust;  comparisons  between  Czech  Republic  and  Taiwan

Texto completo:

PDF (English)

Referencias


Agnew H., 2004, The Czechs and the Lands of the Bohemian Crown, California: Hoover Institution Press.

Auer S., 2006, After 1989, WHO are the Czechs? Nationalism and Ethnic Politics, Vol. 12, pp: 411–430.

Blake C.H. & Martin C.G., 2006, The Dynamics of Political Corruption: Re-examining the Influence of Democracy, Democratization, Vol. 13, Issue 1, pp: 1–14.

Borek D., Carba T. & Korab A., 2003, The Legacy, Uniprint, s.r.o., rychnov nad Kneznou. Copper J.F., 2003, Taiwan: Democracy’s gone awry? Journal of Contemporary China, 12(34), pp: 145–162.

Das J.R., 2005, Putting Social Capital in its Place, Capital and Class.

Cornej J. & Pokorny J., 2003, A Brief History of the Czech Lands to 2004, Prague: the Prah Press.

Dowley M.K. [et al.], 2002, Social Capital, Ethnicity and Support for Democracy in the Post-Communist States, Europe-Asia Studies, Vol. 53, No. 4, pp: 505–527.

Dowling M., 2002, Czechoslovakia: Brief Histories, Oxford University Press. Fell D., 2006, Democracy on the Rocks: Taiwan’s Troubled Political System Since 2000, Harvard Asia Pacific Review, pp: 21–25.

Dryzek S.J. [et al.], 2000, The Real World of Civic Republicanism: making Democracy Work in Poland and the Czech Republic, Europe-Asia Studies, Vol. 52, No. 6, pp: 1043–1068.

Ehrenberg J., 1999, Civil Society, the critical history of an idea, New York University Press, New York.

Ekman J. & Linde J., 2005, Communist Nostalgia and the Consolidation of Democracy in Central and Eastern Europe, Journal of Communist Studies & Transition Politics, Vol. 121, Issue 3, pp: 354–374.

Eyal G., 2000, Anti-politics and the spirit of capitalism: Dissidents, monetarists, and the Czech transition to capitalism, Theory and Society, Vol. 29, pp: 49–92.

Fagin A., 1999, The Development of Civil Society in the Czech Republic: the environmental sector as a measure of associational activity, Journal of European Area Studies, Vol. 7, No. 1, pp: 91–108.

Fawn R., 2000, The Czech Republic: A Nation of Velvet, Amsterdam: Harwood Academic Publishers.

Fukuyama F., 2001, Social Capital, Civil Society and Development, Third World Quarterly, Vol. 22. No. 1, pp: 7–20.

Furst R., 2005, Taiwan-A Maturing Chinese Democracy, Prague: Perspectives, Vol. 24, pp: 42–60.

Glenn J.K., 2000, Civil Society Transformed: International Aid to New Political Parties in the Czech republic and Slovakia, International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Orgnization, Vol. 11, No. 2, pp: 161–179.

Hadjiisky M., 2001, The failure of the participatory Democracy in the Czech Republic, West European Policits, Vol. 24, No. 3, pp: 43–64.

Halman L. [et al.], 2006, Social Capital in Contemporary Europe: evidence from the European Social

Survey, Portuguese Journal of Social Science, Vol. 5, No. 1, pp: 65–90.

Ho W.C., 2003, Democracy, Citizenship and Extra-musical Learning in Two Chinese Communities: Hong Kong and Taiwan, British Association for International and Comparative Education, Vol. 33, No. 2, pp: 155–171.

Holy L., 1996, The Little Czech and the Great Czech Nation: National Identity and the Post-Communist Social Transformation, Cambridge University Press.

Hooghe M. [et al.], 2003, Introduction: Generating Social Capital, New York, pp: 10–18.

Hsiao H.H., 2005, A Trilogy of Social Movement Study, Taipei: Taiwan News, 2005.8.4, pp: 84–86.

Hsieh H.H., 2000, Civil Society under the Democratic Transition in Taiwan: A Case of Taiwan’s Social Movement from 1987–1994, Taipei: Study of Taiwan Historical Material, Vol. 16, pp: 55–72.

Huntington S.P., 1993, The Third Wave: Democratization in the Late Twentieth Century, University of Oklahoma Press: Norman.

Kuo C.T., 2000, Taiwan’s Distorted Democracy in Comparative Perspective, Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, Jaas XXXV, 1, pp: 85–124.

Kuras B., 2001, Is There Life on Marx? Post-Communist Central Europe – the Rough with the Smooth,

Prague: Evropsky Literarni Klub.

Laliberte A., 2001, Buddhist Organizations and Democracy in Taiwan, American Asian Review, Vol. 11, No. 4, pp: 97–129.

Leff C.S., 1997, The Czech and Slovak Republics: Nation Versus State, Colorado: the Westview Press.

Levi M. & Stoker L., 2000, Political Trust and Trustworthiness, Annual Review of Political Science, Vol. 3, Issue 1, pp: 475–508.

Liao F.F.T., 2001, Establish a National Human rights Commission in Taiwan: The Role of NGO’s and Challenges Ahead, Asia-Pacific, Journal on Human Rights and the Law, Vol. 2, No. 2, pp: 90–109.

Lo M.C.M [et al.], 2006, Deploying Weapons of the Weak in civil Society: Political Culture in Hong Kong and Taiwan, Social Justice, Vol. 33, No. 2, pp: 77–104.

Lu S.L., 2007, The Global Taiwan, Taipei: INK. Machonin P., 1997, Social Transformation and Modernization: On Building Theory of Societal Changes in the Post-Communist European Countries, Prague: SLON.

Madsen R., 2002, Confucian Conceptions of Civil Society, in Simone Chambers and Will Kymlicka, editor, Alternative Conceptions of Civil Society, Princeton University Press.

Marsh M.R., 2003, Social Captial, Guanxi, and the Road to Democracy in Taiwan, Comparative Sociology, Vol. 2, Issue 4, pp: 576–604.

Mlcoch L., Machonin P. & Sojka M., 2000, Economic And Social Changes in Czech Society After 1989: An Alternative View, Charles University in Prague: The Karolinum Press.

Myant M., 2005, Klaus, Havel and the Debate over Civil Society in the Czech Republic, Journal of Communist Studies and Transition Politics, Vol. 21, No. 2, pp: 248–267.

Myant M. & Smith S., 2006, Regional Development and Post-Communist Politics in a Czech Region,

Europe-Asia Studies, Vol. 58, No. 2, pp: 147–168.

O’Mahony J., 2003, The Catholic Church and Civil Society: Democratic Options in the Post-Communist

Czech Republic, West European Politics, Vol. 26, Issue 1, pp: 177–194.

Po Y., 2005, The Portrait of Democratic Events in Twentieth Century’s Taiwan, Taipei: Human Rights Educational Foundation and Yuan Liou Publishing Co.

Polisensky J.V., 1991, History of Czechoslovakia in Outline, Prague: Bohemia International.

Putnam R., 1993, Making Democracy Work: Civic Traditions in Modern Italy, Princeton: Princeton University Press

Rakusanova P., 2006, Civil Society and Civic Participation in the Czech Republic.

Roy D., 2003, Taiwan: A Political History, Cornell University Press.

Rudolph J.T. [et al.], 2005, Political Trust, Ideology, and Public Support for Government Spending, American Journal of Political Science, Vol. 49, No. 3, pp: 660–671.

Saxton D.G., 2005, Social Capital and the Growth of the Nonprofit Sector, Social Science Quarterly, Vol. 86, No. 1, pp: 16–26.

Stolle D., 2003, The Sources of Social Capital, Generating Social Capital: Civil Society and Institutions

in Comparative Perspective, ed. by M. Hooghe and D. Stolle, New York: Palgrave, pp: 19–42.

Trika D., 2006, Czech Corruption: What’s The Cure? New Presence, Vol. 8, Issue 3, pp: 12–13.

Vajdova T., 2004, An Assessment of Czech Civil Society in 2004: after fifteen years of development: CIVICUS Civil Society Index Report for the Czech Republic.

Vecernik J. & Mateju P., 1999, Ten Years of Rebuilding Capitalism: Czech Society after 1989, Prague:

Academia.

Vesely A., Mares P. [et al.], 2006, The National Debate on Social Capital. Literature Review on Civil Society, Citizenship and Civil Participation in the Czech Republic, Head of the Author’s Team: M. Potucek, Prague: CESES FSV UK.

Wang Q.K., 2000, Taiwanese NGOs and the Prospect of National Reunification in the Taiwan Strait, Australian Journal of International Affairs, Vol. 54, No. 1, pp: 111–124.

Wong J., 2005, Adapting to Democracy: Societal Mobilization and Social Policy in Taiwan and South Korea, Studies In Comparative International Development, Vol. 40, No. 3, pp: 88–111.

Czech Information of Election, www.volby.cz/index_en.htm.

Taiwan Information of Election, http://210.69.23.140/cec/cechead.asp.

International Social Survey Programme 1996: Role of Government III (ISSP 1996), http://zacat.gesis.org/webview/index.jsp.

International Social Survey Programme 2004: Citizenship (ISSP 2004), http://zacat.gesis.org/webview/index.jsp.

International Social Survey Programme 2006: Role of Government (ISSP 2006), http://zacat.gesis.org/webview/index.jsp.

CVVM , www.cvvm.cas.cz/upl/zpravy/100875s_pi90223.pdf.




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


Estadísticas


Visibilidad de resúmenes - 699
Downloads (from 2020-06-17) - PDF (English) - 0

Indicadores



Enlaces refback

  • No hay ningún enlace refback.


Copyright (c) 2015

Licencia de Creative Commons
Este obra está bajo una licencia de Creative Commons Reconocimiento 4.0 Internacional.