Issue ? 53. November 2015

Post-authoritarian Modernization: The Meaning of the Concept in the Area of Confucian Civilization

Intern, School of Public Administration, Lomonosov Moscow State University, Moscow, Russian Federation.
E-mail: sh_mila@hotmail.com

The article explores the specific features of contemporary modernization trends in the Far East and South-East Asia. It is based on the theoretical models of the current political thought concerning the modernization of non-western societies and empirical research related to the countries of the so-called Confucian civilization: mainland China, Taiwan, Singapore and Southern Korea. Since the historical transformation of the above-mentioned countries has not yet been studied sufficiently well, the need for such study seems quite urgent. The attempt to define the phenomenon of the post-authoritarian modernization in Taiwan and Southern Korea in light of contemporary transit studies is especially fruitful. The article has three parts. The first part deals with the main trends in the study of modernization in political theory. The author claims that, western influence notwithstanding, politics in the countries examined are closely connected to the post-authoritarian modernization. In the second part the author traces the transformation of the authoritarian modernization into a post-authoritarian one. In fact, the new democratic culture in those countries is often combined with an authoritarian legacy. In the third part the results of the historical research are evaluated in the light of the theoretical concepts of modern political science. The author argues that the inventory of modern political theory should include basic concepts of the Confucian civilization.

Keywords

Confucian civilization, modernization, democracy, authoritarianism, Taiwan.