Government and Politics in Taiwan

by Dafydd Fell

Written by an experienced teacher and scholar, this new and revised second edition of Government and Politics in Taiwan introduces students to the big questions concerning change and continuity in Taiwanese politics and governance. Taking a critical approach, Dafydd Fell provides students with the essential background to the history and development of the political system, as well as an explanation of the key structures, processes and institutions that have shaped Taiwan over the last few decades.

Using key features such as suggestions for further reading and end-of-chapter study questions, this textbook covers:

• the transition to democracy and party politics;

• cross-Strait relations and foreign policy;

• electoral politics and voting;

• social movements;

• national identity;

• gender politics.

Having been fully updated to take to take stock of the 2012 and 2016 General Elections, the Sunflower Movement and new developments in cross-Strait relations, this is an essential text for any course on Taiwanese politics, Chinese politics and East Asian politics.

329 pages, Kindle Edition

First published December 29, 2011

About the author

Dafydd Fell’s interest in Taiwanese politics began after a year as a language student in Taipei in the late 1980s. After graduating from a degree in Chinese Studies he spent most of the 1990s working in Taiwan in the education, broadcasting, tourism, agricultural and sports management sectors. Being an eyewitness to Taiwan’s transition away from authoritarian rule has helped shape his subsequent research at SOAS. He joined the SOAS Politics Department as a PhD student in 1999 and has been teaching here since 2003.

Dafydd’s main research focus has been on Taiwan’s political parties and electoral politics. His first book, Party Politics in Taiwan (Routledge, 2005) examined party change in the first fifteen years of multi-party politics. He frequently visits Taiwan for fieldwork and election observing. He has published numerous journal articles and book chapters on Taiwan’s party system, new parties, party switching, candidate selection and how parties learn from electoral setbacks. His second book Government and Politics in Taiwan was published by Routledge in 2011 and a revised and updated second edition was published in 2018. Over the last few years he has been working on a project on the politics of migration and has a co-edited volume titled Migration to and from Taiwan (Routledge, 2014). He also has shifted his attention towards Taiwan’s social movements, publishing an edited book titled Taiwan’s Social Movements under Ma Ying-jeou in 2017. His current research projects include looking at Taiwan’s Green Party, party switching and candidate selection within parties.

Dafydd has been active in developing the field of Taiwan studies at SOAS and beyond. He helped establish the European Association of Taiwan Studies in 2004 and was the Association’s Secretary General for eight years. At SOAS he has helped develop the world’s most extensive Taiwan Studies teaching and academic events programme.