THE LONG-TERM EFFECTS OF STATE REPRESSION ON POLITICAL BEHAVIOR AND ATTITUDES: EVIDENCE FROM TAIWAN

• Published in: Journal of East Asian studies Vol. 21; no. 3; pp. 427 - 448
• Main Authors: Chiou, Fang-Yi, Hong, Ji Yeon
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York, USA Cambridge University Press 01.11.2021; 동아시아연구원
• Subjects: Analysis; Asian studies; Attitudes; Authoritarianism; Candidates; Casualties; Chinese history (Taiwan); Democracy; Democratization; Deportation; Generations; Governors; Long term; Oppression; Police stations; Political attitudes; Political behavior; Political campaigns; Political participation; Political parties; Political persecution; Political violence; Politics; Presidential candidates; Presidential elections; Reconciliation; Repression; Residents; Riots; Towns; Victims; Violence; Voting; 지역학; Taiwan; Japan; authoritarian regime; democratization; long-term effects; state repression; political behavior
• ISSN: 1598-2408; 2234-6643
• DOI: 10.1017/jea.2021.24

This article examines how violence against citizens affects their political attitudes and behavior in the long run, and how those effects vary over time. We construct and analyze a novel dataset on the victims of Taiwan's February 28 Incident, in 1947, with survey data spanning 1990 to 2017. Our empirical analysis shows that cohorts having directly or indirectly experienced the Incident are less likely to support the Kuomintang Party (KMT), the former authoritarian ruling party responsible for the Incident. They tend to disagree with the key conventional policy stand of the KMT (unification with mainland China), are more likely to self-identify as Taiwanese, and are less likely to vote for KMT presidential candidates. Taiwan's residents who were born in towns with larger number of casualties during the Incident are more likely to reject unification. Finally, the effects are found to vary over the period following democratization.