Divergency in Labor Politics in Democratizing South Korea and Taiwan

Abstract

South Korea (hereafter Korea) and Taiwan are well-known for achieving economic miracles in their postwar late industrialization and for making successful political transitions from developmental dictatorships to democratic states over the past decades. For this reason, these two countries, called two of Asia’s dragons, are often treated as a comparable pair by cross-national comparative studies of politico-economic development. Korea and Taiwan are also known for having notable differences in their industrial relations regimes: the former’s labor-management relations have been confrontational, whereas the latter’s, to a certain extent, have been moderate. As succinctly stated in the title of Lee’s book, it is often indicated from an international comparative perspective that the Taiwanese labor movement is characterized as partisan, while the Korean counterpart is marked by militancy. This book, which begins with the author’s sharp observations of the contrasting street scenes of seemingly “crash-less” scooters in Taipei and impatient car drivers in Seoul, presents a convincing answer to the puzzle of why Korea and Taiwan have become quite distinct from each other in their industrial relations. It sheds light on the origins, processes, and outcomes of labor politics, penetrating the historical trajectory of the democratization of the two countries. In contrasting the labor politics in the two democratizing economies, in particular, the author cogently spotlights collective actors, workers, and labor unions that largely have been overlooked by the existing literature. Employing a qualitative case-study method, the volume employs thorough analysis and nuanced causal explanation in comparing the divergent labor politics that evolved historically in the two East Asian states, thereby offering grounded insights that further develop theoretical reasoning concerning the relationship between democratization and labor movements.