The defensive regime and modernization

This paper argues against both conservative and liberal theories of modernization expressed in the “new authoritarianism debate” on the eve of the 1989 Chinese Student Movement. The paper argues that a defensive authoritarian regime, that is a regime that can only rely on and is able to base its survival on performance legitimacy, can lead a successful modernization. Comparing development experiences of historical Taiwan to that of the current mainland China, this paper analyzes the historical background, sources of constraints as well as autonomies of the state power that facilitated the formation of defensive regimes in the historical Taiwan and the current mainland China.