Militants or Partisans : Labor Unions and Democratic Politics in Korea and Taiwan

## List of Illustrations ix Acknowledgments xi Abbreviations xv Notes on Names and References xvii When I first embarked on a study of this somewhat unpopular topic on Asian labor, it was hard to imagine that one day I would be writing acknowledgments before the manuscript's publication. The day has come, and I am exuberated to write the names of the many people and institutions that aided and encouraged me to carry out this research project. First of all, I would like to thank Herbert Kitschelt, my dissertation advisor, who guided me to undertake a dissertation on labor unions in East Asia and carry it to its completion. His intellectual vigor, discipline, and acuity have been the guiding lights during my graduate studies at Duke University and beyond. My transformation from an activist to a scholar would not have been possible without his generous understanding and rigorous training. My sincere appreciation goes to Stephan Haggard for offering me a fellowship to spend a semester at the University of California at San Diego to write this manuscript. With unending inquisitiveness and a cheerful spirit, he was a wonderful mentor to nurture this study into publication. The arguments presented in this book were obviously sharpened thanks to his meticulous reading of all the chapters and the insightful criticisms he offered. I also want to extend my gratitude to the participants of two workshops Stephan organized at UC-San Diego, where I presented an earlier version of this manuscript. I am especially grateful to Jong-sung You, Jaejin Yang, Jinhee Choung, and Kuniaki Nemoto for the scholarly conversations and camaraderie we shared during my stay in San Diego. xiii ness to spare their time to share their stories, expertise, and insights on labor politics in Korea and Taiwan with me. They not only inspired me to undertake this research project, but they also offered the crux of empirical evidence to connect the causal claims in this study. While I am entirely responsible for all the shortcomings of this book, I hope I am not misrepresenting their valuable contributions. The exceptional experiences of South Korea and Taiwan in combining high growth and liberal democracy in a relatively short and similar timetable have brought scholarly attention to their economic and political transformations. This new work looks specifically at the operation of workers and unions in the decades since labor-repressive authoritarian rule ended, bringing Taiwan, in particular, into the literature on comparative labor politics. South Korean labor unions are commonly described as militant and confrontational, for they often take to the streets in raucous protest. Taiwanese unions are seen as moderate and practical, primarily working through formal political processes to lobby their agendas. In exploring how and why these post-democratization states have come to breed such different types of labor politics, Yoonkyung Lee traces the roots of their differences to how unions and political parties operated under authoritarianism, and points to ways in which those legacies continue to be perpetuated. By pairing two cases with many similarities, Lee persuasively uncovers factors that explain the significant variation at play. Labor politics : realities, theories, and explanations Authoritarian legacies and democratic coalitions in Korea and Taiwan Labor unions and political parties in democratized Korea and Taiwan Labor reform politics in democratized Korea and Taiwan. This book explains the origins, processes, and outcomes of South Korea's militant unionism and Taiwan's partisan unionism by investigating the interaction between labor unions and democratic institutions, especially political parties. This work looks specifically at the operation of workers and unions in the decades since labour-repressive authoritarian rule ended, brining Taiwan, in particular, into the literature on comparative labour politics