APSA CGOTS 2020 Call for Papers

​The Conference Group on Taiwan Studies (CGOTS) call for papers is up for the 2020 annual meeting of the American Political Science Association (APSA), to be held September 10 – September 13, 2020, in San Francisco, CA. The APSA conference theme is "Democracy, Difference, and Destabilization." Our official Related Group call for papers is posted below; it's also available in pdf format here. 

The deadline for submissions is Tuesday, January 14, 2020 .

2020 American Political Science Association
Conference Group on Taiwan Studies (CGOTS)

Call for Papers

The 2020 American Political Science Association (APSA) Annual Meeting will be held from September 10-13, 2020, in San Francisco, CA. The conference theme is “Democracy, Difference, and Destabilization.”

CGOTS invites paper and panel proposals on Taiwan’s domestic politics, cross-Strait issues, and international relations that are consistent with the theme of “Democracy, Difference, and Destabilization.”

In the United States, democratic institutions are generally thought of as bulwarks against manifold threats, both inside and outside of the American polity. Indeed, the assumption has been that our nation’s constitution is solid and prescient enough to thwart—or at the least contain—the more authoritarian impulses of citizens and elected officials alike. Donald J. Trump’s election to the presidency of the United States in 2016 has dramatically called into question this working assumption. Yet President Trump’s ascendance to executive power is more epilogue than prologue to the inclusivity of American democracy. In the decades leading to Trump’s momentous election, there were already countless signs of democracy displaying illiberal tendencies in the United States. For example, the Supreme Court’s abandonment of Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act has made it possible for states to suppress the ability of citizens of color to register and vote. The practice of gerrymandering continues to enable one political party to maintain control of state legislatures and congressional delegations, regardless of the intensity of their electoral support. Doubts have been raised anew about birthright citizenship, which was first established through the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution to formally incorporate Black Americans into the body politic.

The United States is not alone in peering down this deep dark well. Brazilians have ushered in President Jair Bolsonaro, who openly disdains democratic principles. Poland’s citizens have been witness to their conservative party attempting a dismantling of the judiciary and separation of powers. In Egypt, repression and authoritarian control has tightened substantially under the political control of President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi. Hong Kong’s emerging democracy has stalled, though signs of democratic resistance emerged in summer 2019.

For the 2020 Annual Meeting, we encourage participants to consider questions about “Democracy, Difference, and Destabilization” in Taiwan, especially those that speak to the strengths and weaknesses of Taiwan’s democracy under the theme perspective, and to various domestic and international issues related to threats imposed by the Chinese authoritarian regime. The next presidential and legislative elections in Taiwan will be held on January 11, 2020. It is perfect timing to investigate the existing and emerging problems facing Taiwan’s democratic rules and practices. We encourage scholars to raise and study the following questions under the Taiwan context, including how citizens react to democratic threats in Taiwan; who, within democratic publics, endorses illiberal tactics and practices in Taiwan; who, within mass publics, staffs the barricades against democratic threats in Taiwan; when individuals perceive a threat to their position within a democracy and how they respond politically in Taiwan; where, across the globe, mass publics best reconcile capitalism with support for democratic institutions; where, in the world, we see people agitating to gain or maintain rights; and why some individuals interpret demographic changes as threats to their rights, rather than a plus for democratic governance in Taiwan.

We also welcome proposals that utilize innovative approaches to understand how Taiwan positions itself under the U.S. Indo-Pacific Strategy and the ongoing U.S.-China trade frictions. Research investigating the dynamics of the U.S.-Taiwan-China relations, the influences of China on Taiwan’s domestic and international politics, the impact of the U.S.-China trade frictions on Taiwan’s outward and inward trade and investment patterns, the potential changes between the cross-Strait relations as a result of the 2020 general elections, and the public perception on Taiwan’s foreign policy is highly desirable. These questions help the political science academe to better understand Taiwan under the global context and raise Taiwan’s international visibility. 
 
Please send proposals to APSA: (http://community.apsanet.org/annualmeeting/call/papers)  

If you have any questions or concerns, please contact Yao-Yuan Yeh ([email protected]), CGOTS Coordinator. Travel support for CGOTS panelists is subject to the availability of external funding.