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Polarized Electorates in South Korea and Taiwan: The Role of Political Trust under Conservative Governments

  • Hyunji Lee

On October 17-18, 2014 the Taiwan Democracy Project at CDDRL, with the generous support of the Taipei Economic and Culture Office, hosted its annual conference at Stanford University to examine the politics of polarization in Taiwan.

This conference brought together specialists from Taiwan, the U.S., and elsewhere in Asia to examine the sources and implications of this political polarization in comparative perspective. It will include a special case study of the Trade in Services Agreement with China that triggered this past year’s protests, as well as a more general overview of the politics of trade liberalization in Taiwan, prospects for Taiwan’s integration into the Trans-Pacific Partnership and other regional trade agreements, and a consideration of the implications for Taiwan’s long-term democratic future.

Hyunji Lee is a Research Associate in the Institute of Asian Research at the University of British Columbia. Dr. Lee’s research interests include public opinion and policies that entail risk and uncertainty, impacts of parties and electoral systems on policy-making, and gender differences in public opinion. Her dissertation research examined influences on public opinion toward trade liberalization in South Korea and beyond. She holds a Ph.D. in political science from the University of British Columbia. Before returning to UBC, she was an Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Calgary from 2011-2013.