Sun Yat-sen Thoughts, the Centennial of the Republic of China, and Development Models in Taiwan and Mainland China: A Macro Analytical Framework

It would do no justice to a review of the Republic of China’s (ROC) centennial development if a focus were cast exclusively on the ROC’s early period on the Chinese mainland, the authoritarian era in Taiwan, or the two decades after democratization. This article attempts to provide a broad overview of the century of the Republic by putting the ROC’s three developmental stages in a theoretical framework, pointing out the mechanisms of transitions, and capturing the grand trends in historical development. We observe three subjects: Sun Yat-sen’s thoughts, the practice of the ROC, and the post-1949 development on mainland China. These three produce seven observation points on a two-dimensional map laid out by the axes of state political control and state economic control. Three political systems are identified on the political axis: liberal democracy, modernizing authoritarianism, and totalitarianism, as well as three property rights structures/economic systems on the economic axis: market capitalism, state capitalism, and state socialism, based on different levels of political and economic control by the state. This gives rise to nine institutional combinations against which the seven observation points can be located. When state political control matches economic control, the institutional combination is most stable. This is followed by high political control cum low economic control. The least sustainable combination is when low political control is paired with high economic control. On the institutional map, Sun Yet-sen’s thoughts migrated from democratic state capitalism to authoritarian state capitalism, with the ultimate ideal point remaining unchanged. The ROC shifted from a limited form of authoritarian state capitalism (while on the mainland) to full authoritarian state capitalism (prior to democratization in Taiwan), and finally to democratic market capitalism (after democratization in Taiwan). The PRC transitioned from totalitarian state socialism under Mao Zedong to post-totalitarian state capitalism during the post-Mao, and particularly the post-Tiananmen period. Because high political control is paired with low economic control, this system demonstrated considerable institutional resilience, capable of overcoming the challenge posed by a series of politico-economic crises. Institutional isomorphism is found in Sun Yat-sen’s later thoughts, the ROC’s authoritarian stage, and contemporary China. The mainland has moved into Taiwan’s institutional past. The prospects for further institutional convergence between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait will be determined by the relative rate of the rise of national capability compared with institutional change on the mainland.