This is a solidly conceived project executed in a scholarly way. The authors use the word “schizophrenic” to describe aspects of their work, but such a characterization is too strong. Although the book is sometimes uneven in tone and has a tendency to oscillate between economics and politics without as full an engagement of questions of political economy as one might like, the book is still a useful addition to current works on Taiwan.
The need for a book like this one is clear. While the notion of a political and economic miracle in Taiwan is well established, the apex of Taiwan as a case of “growth with equity” was likely the mid-1980s, and the unfettered excitement of the place as a Silicon Island probably only extends the economic story to the end of the 1990s. Similarly, Taiwan's 1996 presidential election along with opposition candidate Chen Shui-bian's presidential election victory in 2000 are usually taken as signs of a maturation and consolidation of democracy in Taiwan. In both cases, however, well over a decade has passed since the triumphal exclamation points of the two narratives, and there is a pressing need to understand, not just Taiwan's past success, but Taiwan today.
Of course, the idea of a Taiwan miracle is a tough act to follow. In the subtitle of their work, the authors attempt to present an alternative frame for thinking about Taiwan in terms of “meeting challenges, pursuing progress.” The characterization, however, seems a little pedestrian. As a characterization of the last fifteen years in Taiwan, it is accurate, but one imagines there must be more evocative ways to describe recent events (the resilience of an eclecticism beyond orthodoxies? an era of flexibility without fortune?).
The real strengths of the book, however, are not in wordsmithing, but in its substantive chapters (and the same may be said of its weaknesses). In considering the work, two questions seem pertinent: (1) Does the book provide a useful summary of Taiwan's past political and economic development? (2) Is it effective in conveying a sense of the island today?
On these two points, results are mixed.
The book has several virtues. In particular, it exists; it fills a need, and it does so in a scholarly fashion. In addition, the book's second and third chapters present reasonable summaries of Taiwan's economic and political development. Its later chapters also present a useful starting place for thinking about Taiwan's current situation.
The book also has some weaknesses.
While it attempts to incorporate recent events into Taiwan's overall development story by casting things in terms of a Taiwan paradox, the degree to which the puzzling face of paradox looms over recent events is unclear. Yes, in the early 1990s, one might have considered Taiwan a potential model for developing nations, and yes, in recent years, Taiwan has been confronted by a series of challenges, but changes of fortune, though often interesting, are not necessarily signs of paradox. Natural resource economies, for example, are often buffeted by far greater volatility than what we have seen in Taiwan, yet few would use the word “paradox” to describe their situations.
As far as Taiwan's recent economic development is concerned, it has had to cope with three major external shocks (the 1997–98 Asia crisis, the collapse of the Internet bubble in 2000, and the American financial crisis of 2008–2009). At the same time it has gotten closer and closer to the world's technological frontier in many sectors (making growth through copying increasingly difficult), all the while facing a persistent headwind in terms of a sustained net outflow of investment dollars. In fact, one could argue that the real surprise is not that Taiwan's economic growth has slowed, but that its economy has held up as well as it has. The authors are not insensitive to this, but with a first chapter entitled “The Taiwan Paradox,” the book's structure ultimately places more emphasis on contrast than continuity.
Certain arguments presented in the book regarding Taiwan's politics are also, at times, challenging. The authors bemoan what they see as increasing corruption and political polarization in Taiwan and are dismayed by recent political gridlock. They attribute the increasing corruption to Taiwan's democratization and political dysfunction to the legacy of an authoritarian tradition along with a single nontransferable vote system imported from Japan. Alternative views (e.g., some of the perceived increase in corruption might stem from an increasingly active free press) seem less well accounted for.
Finally, while the authors seem correct in observing that Taiwan does not seem to have really established “the give-and-take of normal democratic policymaking” (p. 109), their explanation seems relatively esoteric. Ultimately, an electorate split into two relatively equal and dissimilar pieces seems more than enough to account for the polarization. A long-term ruling party, ousted from the executive, but still in control of the legislature, aware of the ever greater resources flowing to its supporters from activities abroad and looking to reassert control of the executive, seems more than enough to account for the gridlock.
Overall, it seems like more could have been done, but that should not distract us from the good that has been achieved. In this respect, the story of the book is not so unlike the recent story of Taiwan.
