ChinaRains at Stanford: Reflections on the Polarization of Politics in Taiwan

Stanford ChinaRains (http://chinarains.blogspot.com)

Diminishing of the Middle?

Reflections on the Polarization of Politics in Taiwan

Speaker : Maukuei, Chang

张茂桂

Research Fellow of the Institute of Sociology, Academia Sinica, Taiwan

President of Taiwanese Sociological Association

Working language: Chinese

Thursday, May 29, 7-9pm

Nairobi Room, Graduate Community Center

750 Escondido Road, Stanford, CA 94305

Outline of the Talk:

Political polarization in democratic regimes seems to be a common theme. Routine partisan competitions involving regional-cultural, ethnic-racial, gender, income-class, religious differences can become so intensified that they split the society into rivalry camps. This talk will address this issue in Taiwan’s democratization process using the data from waves of surveys. After studying different indicators Prof. Chang believes that the middle-of-roaders have not disappeared or declined in past few years even during the time when the Blue camp and the Green Camp fight against each other intensely. He also finds that the middle-of-roaders may come from the dissolving process of the KMT.

Bio. Of Dr. Chang:

Mau-kuei Chang is Research Fellow of the Institute of Sociology, Academia Sinica; Chair Guest Professor, Department of Sociology, SooChow University (2008); President of Taiwanese Sociological Association (serving 2008-2009). He received his Ph.D. degree of sociology from Purdue University in 1984, and has visited U.C. Berkeley and McGill University as Fulbright and exchange scholar; and has been a Visiting Chair professor at Leiden University of the Netherlands. He has served to various academic journals both in and out of Taiwan. His academic research and teaching interests include social movement studies, identity politics, and ethnic and nationalism. His recent English publications include The Movement to Indigenize Social Sciences in Taiwan (2005), Taiwan’s Nationalistic Politics and its Difficult Status-quo (2006), and has an edited volume (with Zheng Yong-nian) in Chinese titled Social Movement Studies on both Sides of Taiwan Strait (2002).