Taiwan democracy and the conceptualization of ideological security in Tsai administration’s discourse

Abstract

Abstract Utilizing the theoretical lens of securitization and the Taiwan Democracy Ideology Securitisation conceptual framework (the TDIS), this article explains how the Tsai administration (Republic of China) transforms Taiwan democracy into the issue of security by conceptualizing Taiwan’s ideological security. In this study, I employ Tsai’s administration’s governmental discourses concerning the issues of democracy and national security to understand how political language and words support an interpretation of the social realities in which Taiwan democracy could be treated as a national security object. The findings show that the Tsai administration conceptualized ‘ideological security’ to bring the issue of democracy security to the public. The conceptualization was handled in three main ways: forming Taiwan democracy as a dominant political ideology; spiritualizing Taiwan democracy as a political asset and revolutionarily ‘hard-earned’ achievement; and shaping Taiwan’s ideological security. Furthermore, the paper quantitatively demonstrated that the majority of the Taiwanese public agreed with the government’s transforming Taiwan democracy into ideological security.

Keywords

• Securitization theory
• Taiwan democracy
• The TDIS framework
• Ideological security
• Political discourses
• Political ideologies