Keywords: Political behavior, participation and culture

Hong Kong and Taiwan have many similarities in cultural and historical context, but followed different approaches of political development. Now in different stages of democratization, they share a common characteristic, which is the significant role of identity politics, the conflict between “Chinese identity” and “local identity”. Such identity politics not only influence citizens’ view to many controversial issues, but also decides, to some extent, party confrontation, electoral results and approach of political development. But, admittedly, there are also significant differences between Hong Kong and Taiwan.

The purpose of this research is to analyze the relation between identity politics and political development, especially in the context of democratization, in Hong Kong and Taiwan, and discuss the similarity and difference between the two cases. By which we can understand the interaction between political development and identity politics: On the one hand, political transition or democratization may promote the development of identity and lead to the increasing role of identity politics. On the other hand, the development of identity also significantly influence political development, promote democratization, or/and increase political confrontation and polarization.

The preliminary hypothesis is: while identity politics is both results of political development in Hong Kong and Taiwan, it may play different roles in the two regions for they are in different stages of democratization.