Toward a hybrid democratic culture: moral codes in public narratives about COVID in Taiwan

Abstract A key question regarding democratic consolidation in nonwestern societies concerns how democratic cultures interact with local traditions. Existing research richly illustrates the competition between Western and nonwestern cultural codes, but the blending of different values remains understudied. Adopting a civil sphere theory (CST) perspective and drawing on a qualitative analysis of 327 news reports, this study examines the (anti-)democratic potential of code hybridization. I delineate three empirical patterns of how the codes of liberty, caring, and efficient bureaucracy were combined in narratives about civic solidarity during the COVID-19 pandemic in Taiwan. At its best, this hybrid culture facilitates imaginations of civic solidarity transcendent of national boundaries. At its worst, it encourages a developmental populism that demands unlawful and anti-democratic, but allegedly efficient, state actions in the name of “the people.”