Adaptive Authoritarian Policing: A Journey From China and Japan to Taiwan

Abstract

Authoritarian policing could be resilient and coexist with various types of polity including democracy. This essay aims to discuss how authoritarian policing in Taiwan, with its origins in China and Japan, operated and evolved in various periods of post-WWII Taiwan, including the period of pseudo-democracy (1945-1987), democratic transition (1987-1996), and liberal democracy (1996-present). By examining its interaction with other institutions and actors, such as political parties, dissidents, and the judiciary, this essay discusses how authoritarian policing adapted to changing political climate and, in particular, legality and political accountability that could transform authoritarian policing into a democratic one.