ABSTRACT

In recent years, Taiwan has seen soaring resistance against rural and urban land expropriations. Dramatic photographs of bulldozers in the Wang family courtyard and in Dapu village are famous nationwide, while other groups have become prestigious mainly within the Taiwanese social movement community. This chapter about anti-eviction movements investigates difficulties of mobilizing collective action against evictions or land expropriations in Taiwan and examines the role property rights have for procreating and sustaining a civil society. After all, it is commonly presumed that property ownership facilitates awareness of interest conflicts and gives rise to civil society activities for protecting private interests against the government. The chapter tests whether property right violations make people politically and legally aware of their rights and help them mobilize against the government to oppose these violations. The expectation that property rights are linked with civil society further leads to the presumption that the middle class is the driving force in the formation of civil society.