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Polarized political scene not good for economy: pundits

Social and political polarization in Taiwan could be harmful to the country's economic growth, participants said at a Taipei conference yesterday, citing developments in other countries.

"It is clear that an increase in social polarization is harmful to economic growth and that political polarization is the source of social polarization," said Ying Yuan-hsian, a professor at National Sun Yat-sen University's Institute of Interdisciplinary Studies for Social Sciences.

Ying was speaking at a forum on polarized politics comparing the situations in the US, South Korea and Taiwan, organized by the Taiwan Foundation for Democracy and the College of Social Sciences at National Sun Yat-sen University and co-sponsored by the American Institute in Taiwan.

Ying said many developing countries had seen social polarization hinder economic growth since the 1970s, citing studies of social conflicts in Latin American countries where the failure to reach a consensus and deliver policies promptly in the face of external shocks had led to economic collapse.

David Brady, deputy director of the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, focused on the negative consequences of political polarization in his keynote speech.

He cited economic consequences such as slower economic growth and less equitable distribution of income, as well as political consequences including government paralysis in decision-making and a distorted political process.

Social polarization describes the segregation of groups within a society, often based on differences in income and education levels or ethnic divisions.

Brady said that intense political partisanship is sometimes a reflection of social polarization.

"Whatever polarization exists in a society is aggregated through political parties into governments," regardless of whether the administration is a single-party majority government or a coalition government, Brady said.

"Citizens and interest groups with preferences sort themselves into parties through psychological identification, monetary or self-interest calculations or through formal arrangements," he said.

Liao Da-chi (廖達琪), a professor at National Sun Yat-sen University's Institute of Political Science and Eric Yu, a research fellow at Stanford University, said, however, that Taiwan's political polarization was more evident among the political elite and did not reflect the general electorate.

Politics at the government level are sharply divided between the pan-blue and pan-green camps, they said.

"However, the polarization of political officials is not necessarily a direct reflection of a similarly polarized mass electorate," they said, adding that the number of voters who do not associate themselves with a specific political party had remained steady.

Liao and Yu also said, however, that the main line dividing voters into two camps -- stances on national identity -- "[is moving] the two party camps farther apart from each other."

Liu Cheng-shan (劉正山), an assistant professor at National Sun Yat-sen University's Institute of Political Science, said the media had likely played a key role in reinforcing political polarization.
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