Democratization in Taiwan: The interaction of structure, political institutions, and political elites

This dissertation explores Taiwan\u27s democratization. There are two major types of democratization theories: condition-oriented and actor-oriented theories. Condition-oriented theories emphasize the role of change in socioeconomic conditions in fostering democratization. Such theories, because they neglect the roles of political elites, have the weakness of providing correlative, static, deterministic, society-oriented, and class-based analysis of democratization. Actor-oriented theories, on the other hand, stress the influence of socioeconomic change and political elites\u27 choices in driving democratization. This dissertation argues that, in addition to considering socioeconomic conditions and political elites, one must also look at the constraints posed by political institutions in order to explain democratization in Taiwan. Societal pressures for democratization emerged in Taiwan because of favorable socioeconomic conditions, institutional protection of elections, and the leadership of opposition elites. Economic development, however, also strengthened the Kuomintang (KMT) regime\u27s control over society. The Single Nontransferable Vote electoral system used in Taiwan has constrained the opposition and maintained the KMT\u27s hegemonic power. The beginning of democratization in Taiwan was caused by Chiang Ching-kuo\u27s illness, drop in the legitimacy of the KMT, and opposition pressures. Socioeconomic conditions, institutional constraints (the constitution and electoral laws), and the choices, power, ideology, and interactions of political elites have substantially influenced the process and outcome of democratization in Taiwan, with the result that the KMT has dominated the process of democratization and is likely to continue in a hegemonic position during the foreseeable future. The major arguments derived from my study of the Taiwanese case are validated by comparing it with Spain, South Korea, the Soviet Union, and China