Unfinished business: the Catholic Church, communism, and democratization

Abstract

Although history has shown us that the church plays a role in the political liberalization of non-democratic countries, the nature of the church's role and how it participates in politics has yet to be fully revealed. By revisiting the Polish Church's historic role in the collapse of communism, I argue that we have overestimated the church's effect on political liberalization in that case, which has led us to neglect or be prematurely disappointed in its role in the remaining communist countries such as in Cuba. Drawing from the Polish case, I conclude that the church's moral, self-limiting, and transnational character needs to be recognized and incorporated into a general theory of democratization. It is this aspect of the church that has helped it to remain active within remaining communist societies, and provide the moral support that is an integral part of political liberalization processes.Religion and liberation have gone hand in hand at different times and for different reasons. 1 In the final quarter of the twentieth century, it was one of the catalysts for the various Latin American liberation movements as well as the collapse of Soviet communism. 2 Scholars generally have agreed that religion -and particularly the Roman Catholic Church ('church') -played a significant role in these processes. Yet, it has been approximately 10 years since we have said farewell to godless communism and little attention or credit has been given to the church's role in those non-democratic countries that refuse to acknowledge the 'end of history'. 3 These analytical gaps or oversights suggest that our studies of the church and democratization are perhaps incomplete. If the church is to be part of a generalizable theory of democratization, scholars should not be selective in their analyses, that is, focusing on the church in some countries and not others. Although history has shown us that the church plays a role in the political liberalization of

Two-party Contests and the Politics of Electoral Reforms: The Case of Taiwan

“…A public opinion survey conducted by the National Taiwan University in 1992 indicated that 56.9 per cent of respondents believed that ‘a great majority of the members of the Legislators speak for big business rather than for the common people’, and 57.2 per cent felt that ‘most candidates pledge to serve the people, but they actually only look after their self-interest’. Public outrage at corruption triggered some reform-minded politicians to push for electoral reforms in the mid-1990s, and some Kuomintang members were also in favour of change (Chu 1999). The Kuomintang suggested the idea of adopting a Japanese-style first-past-the-post mixed system in 1994, but swiftly withdrew the proposal due to opposition from other parties.…”

“…It was the Kuomintang that adopted the SNTV-MMD system for the 1992 Legislative Yuan election because the SNTV-MMD achieved satisfactory results for the party in local elections. SNTV-MMD had long been a link between the Kuomintang and local factions, and the single non-transferable vote and the relationship with local factions allowed the Kuomintang to enjoy a favourable proportion of the vote and to win the seats (Chu 1999). However, after the democratic transition, as the Democratic Progressive Party began to develop its electoral skills and new political parties were formed, the Democratic Progressive Party and the new parties started to increase their seats in the Legislative Yuan.…”

“…In 1996 the Democratic Progressive Party had considered the German-style mixed system that incorporated more proportionality. Under the German-style mixed system, half of the members are elected from single-member districts and half through proportional representation (Chu 1999). The two parties converged on the Japanese-style mixed system in 2005 when the Democratic Progressive Party accepted the Kuomintang's reform proposal.…”

Cuba and Poland: an Outline of Comparative Analysis of Totalitarian Regimes

“…The Cuban and Polish nations are predominantly Catholic. In both cases, Catholicism is a significant component of the rural community identities, and to some extent, also national identities (Crahan, 2017;Chu, 2011;Eberts, 1998). Therefore, Cuba and Poland shared cultural patterns and culture-based identity.…”