Where statehood is contested, questions of identity and territory define the political landscape Despite maintaining de facto sovereignty, states like Taiwan find themselves unrecognized in today’s international system because another power claims the state as part of their territory. This fraught status, in turn, significantly affects the domestic politics of these places. Lev Nachman’s exploration of Taiwan’s political landscape after the 2014 Sunflower Movement brings a fresh perspective to understanding social movement mobilization and political party formation in what he terms “contested states.” In these states, political cleavages are defined not by traditional left-right issues but by questions of identity, territory, and what to do about the country that claims them. Drawing from 150 interviews with Taiwanese activists and politicians, as well as a comparative analysis of Ukraine, Nachman reveals that traditional political science theories fall short when explaining the formation of movement parties in such contexts. Instead, he argues, looming existential threats and strained relationships between activists and established proindependence parties drive social movements into formal political arenas. Contested Taiwan offers a new approach to understanding contested statehood, movement party formation, and what motivates individuals to take political action across the world. " Contested Taiwan is theoretically important but also extremely rich and original empirically. It is likely to be seen as a Taiwan studies classic."―Dafydd Fell, author of Taiwan's Green Parties: Alternative Politics in Taiwan "Taiwan’s vibrant and active democracy takes citizens being willing to defend their way of life. Nachman’s book is a fascinating exploration of why Taiwan’s citizens are willing to stand up and be counted, and of when they fare better or worse when trying to organize themselves politically."―Ja Ian Chong, author of External Interventions and the Politics of State Formation: China, Indonesia, and Thailand, 1893–1952 "With a political ethnographer’s eye, Lev Nachman offers an original take on the evolution of Taiwan’s democracy over the past decade. Against the backdrop of Taiwan’s ‘contested’ statehood, Nachman explains why emergent social movements outside of the formal political arena end up becoming political parties. His perspective, drawing on years of intensive fieldwork, provides deep insight into political activism in Taiwan, one of the world’s most vulnerable yet defiantly resilient democracies."―Joseph Wong, coauthor of From Development to Democracy: The Transformations of Modern Asia Lev Nachman is assistant professor in the Graduate Institute of National Development at National Taiwan University and coauthor, with Jonathan Sullivan, of Taiwan: A Contested Democracy under Threat .