Abstract:

Taiwan’s generally peaceful transition to democracy has been as miraculous as its economic and social development. One still-unresolved puzzle is how the Kuomintang regime managed to maintain its one-party authoritarian rule for so long (1949-1987) with very minimal popular protest. Violence and “sticks” alone do not explain this: rather, the regime, intentionally or not, provided several channels for upward mobility to all Taiwan’s citizens, winning grudging legitimacy even as the arguments justifying the continuation of martial law grew increasingly divorced from reality. This enabled the democratic transition to proceed rapidly and smoothly once the regime gave the signal. This talk examines the durability of authoritarianism in Taiwan and how this established the foundation for a peaceful transformation.


Biography:

Thomas B. Gold is Professor of Sociology at the University of California, Berkeley, where he has taught since 1981. He also served as Associate Dean of International and Area Studies and Chair of the Center for Chinese Studies at Berkeley.


Tom got interested in China as an undergraduate at Oberlin College. After graduating he taught English at Tunghai University in Taiwan. He then received a Masters in Regional Studies-East Asia and a PhD in Sociology, both from Harvard University. In February 1979, while at Harvard he was a member of the first group of American exchange students to study in China, spending a year at Fudan University in Shanghai.


Prof Gold’s research focuses on many aspects of the societies of East Asia, primarily Taiwan and mainland China. In the largest sense, he examines the process of the emergence of the increasingly empowered and autonomous individual and a private sphere in authoritarian societies.


His book, State and Society in the Taiwan Miracle (1986) is a standard work in the field. He continues to research social change in Taiwan since the end of Martial Law in 1987.