When Authors meet Critics: TJD special issue online launch

In June and December 2020, the Taiwan Studies Programme organised two online international conferences, focused on the 'Populism and Elections in Great Britain, the United States and Taiwan'. The outcome of these two conferences is the publication of a special section on the Taiwan Journal of Democracy in July 2021. The authors of this special section will introduce their papers and interact with readers through a virtual space.

The order of speakers in the special section is as follows

Populism and Elections in Great Britain, the United States, and Taiwan

Coordinators: Tun-jen Cheng and Chun-yi Lee

• Opinion Polls and Populism in Modern British Elections - Roger Mortimore
• U.S. Party Politics and the Peculiar Nature of American Populism - Thomas Greven 
• Governing in Conflict or Cooperation?Trump’s Populism and the Republican Party - Jon Herbert
• Does Press Freedom Come with Responsibility? Media for and against Populism in Taiwan - Lihyun Lin and Chun-yi Lee
• Challengers to Mainstream Parties in Taiwan’s 2020 Elections: Continuity Rather Than the Expected Change - Dafydd Fell
• Labor Market, Economic Insecurity, and Populism in Taiwan - Wei-Ting Yen

Event Review by

Charlotte Trainor, BA Politics and International Relations, School of Politics and International Relations, University of Nottingham

The Taiwan Studies Programme’s most recent event allowed the authors of the recent section in the Taiwan Journal of Democracy in July 2021 to summarise and discuss their papers on ‘Populism and Elections in Great Britain, the United States and Taiwan’. The event provided a valuable insight into how populism is a growing movement regardless if the host is a hegemonic power like the United States or a smaller power like Taiwan. Throughout the event, each author continued to enhance how exciting this area of politics is and why populism should continue to be the baseline of many future projects. Ultimately this event left you reflecting how in an age of globalisation, populism is not only redefining the internal political system of differing countries but also the international relations scene.