Deliberative Governance in East Asia

Workshop dates: 26 - 27 June 2014

Convenors: Prof. Yung-mau Chao (IIAS Professor, holder of the Taiwanese Chair of Chinese Studies / National Taiwan University) and Dr Ting-jieh Wang (National Taiwan University)

The rise of deliberation has been a conspicuous event in political studies in the last few decades. Frustrated by institutionalized ways of thinking and doing politics, proponents of deliberation contend that an argumentative approach offers much potential to increase genuine participation and set right the problems of legitimacy deficit in liberal democracy. With various forms of realization, deliberation is now a widespread occurrence in fields as diverse as urban planning, education policy, environmental disputes and bioethics. And yet, deliberation is not exclusive to liberal democracy. Irrespective of regime type, many governmental agencies are beginning to take an interest in deliberation, viewing it as a meaningful alternative to traditional modes of planning and conflict resolution.

In view of the widening and varied emergence of deliberative governance, we may identify a few gaps in existing literature. In this bourgeoning and contested field, current studies are generally imbued with the Habermasian model of communication and a normative democratic ideal. Concomitantly, focus is often on liberal democracy in the North, with insufficient attention paid to the happenings in developing or authoritarian countries. As such, there is a strong need to incorporate different theoretical perspectives and cases studies of less-examined areas, so as to further invigorate the debate.

In order to advance our understanding of deliberative governance, we are organizing an academic workshop on deliberative governance in East Asia, to be held at the International Institute for Asian Studies (IIAS), Leiden, The Netherlands, on 26-27 June 2014. In our view, East Asia presents an interesting and unique case of deliberative governance. The rapid development in the region has now led to heightened and novel forms of social complexity and an urgent need for political innovation. Deliberation in this context has become an increasingly appealing option. For example, in the aftermath of the Fukushima Earthquake, the Japanese government experimented with a deliberative poll in 2012 to consult the public on the issues of energy policy and the environment. In Taiwan and Korea, activists, scholars and policy-makers are trying out consensus conference, citizens jury and other forms of popular participation in the hope of deepening democracy and resolving major disputes. And scholars of Chinese politics are now describing a ‘deliberative turn,’ led mainly by the government in its attempt to improve policy quality and strengthen political legitimacy.

It should be noted that this convergence of interest in deliberation is brought about by very different kinds of political economy in each country. Meanwhile, in comparison with other Northern countries where deliberative democracy is most studied, East Asia’s distinct political culture makes comparative research a potentially fruitful approach to advance our understanding of the wide and varied emergence of deliberative governance.

Please find the program below.

Photo from Fixing Pottholes.

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