The Incurious Approach to East Asian Populism
Why Studies on Japan, South Korea and Taiwan are Often Overlooked in Political Science
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 6434954 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Axel Klein (0000-0002-4203-2938, University of Duisburg-Essen), Frédéric Krumbein (0000-0002-0647-6267, Tel Aviv University, corresponding author), Hannes B Mosler (0000-0001-9443-9177, University of Duisburg-Essen) |
| Year | 2025 |
| Volume | 25 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 121-140 |
| Publication date | 2025-01-13 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journal of East Asian Studies (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1598-2408 • E-ISSN: 2234-6643 |
| Publisher | Cambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1017/jea.2024.19 |
| OpenAlex | W4406334853 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 4 |
| References cited | 22 |
The East Asian democracies (EAD) of Japan, South Korea and Taiwan have received little attention from the international political science community working on populism. By analyzing the last two to three decades of research on EAD we look for clues to help us explain why there is so little interest. In our review we encounter cases of eclectic conceptualization, suboptimal data, innovative categorization, binary analytics, and even political bias, all of which may weaken the persuasiveness of the respective research in the eyes of critical colleagues. Our key finding, however, is that all studies on EAD implicitly refer to local political standards as the baseline from which alleged populist behavior is identified and labeled. In direct comparison, the populist characteristics of East Asian politicians appear to be less pronounced than those of sledgehammer populists like Donald Trump, Hugo Chavez, or Boris Johnson. Consequently, scholars working on the latter may be less curious about the former. Our findings, therefore, confront us with the question of what to use as a baseline for the measurement of potentially populist phenomena. We argue for the application of what is locally considered standard political behavior and conclude that such a practice has the potential to draw more attention to cases from Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan
Categorization · China · Conceptualization · East Asia · Epistemology · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Populism · Sociology · Electoral Systems and Political Participation · Hong Kong and Taiwan Politics · Law · Populism, Right-Wing Movements
Populism in Asian Democracies
The Global Rise of Populism
The Oxford Handbook of Migration Crises
State, Society and International Relations in Asia
The Routledge Handbook of Populism in the Asia Pacific
Reformer or Destroyer? Hashimoto Toru and Populist Neoliberal Politics in Japan
Populism “made in Japan”
Electron democracy, populism, and generational politics
Unraveling the Japan-South Korea “Virtual Alliance”
Developing Japanese Populism Research through Readings Of European Populist Radical Right Studies
Populism in Taiwan
What Is Populism
Do populists support populism? An examination through an online survey following the 2017 Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly election
South Korea's Democratic Decay
Clarifying a Contested Concept
The Causes of Populism in the West
Populist Discourses in Taiwan and the Case of Han Kuo-yu
Manufacturing Contempt
| Citations per year | 4 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2025 - 2026 (2) |
| Highly cited | No |