The Great Transition: Political and Social Change in the Republic of China

ISBN-10: 0817987819
ISBN-13: 9780817987817
Series: The Great Transition
Pages: 324
Language: English
Published: 1989
Publisher: Hoover Institution Press, Stanford University
Author: Hung-mao Tien

Description

The author treats Taiwan as a case study of how an authoritarian regime may become more democratic. He addresses the complex issue of how the Kuomintang was able to sustain its authoritarian, repressive political system in the context of a highly successful market-oriented economy, and how Taiwan's social and economic changes at last forced the political elite to respond with reforms of the political system. Tien sees the forces of "Taiwanization," liberalization, and political democratization as central to the current transformation of Taiwan's political system.