Taiwan is only one of four consolidated Asian democracies. Democratizing Taiwan provides the most comprehensive analysis of Taiwan's peaceful democratization including the past authoritarian experience, leadership both within and outside government, popular protest and elections, and constitutional interpretation and amendments.

Published by Monash University, this paper discusses the many issues involving democracy in Taiwan.

Democratization in Taiwan in the last decade raises the question whether a similar process can happen in China, and dispels the old conception that democratization is incompatible with the Chinese/Confucian tradition. This volume examines the nature of and the dynamics in the democratization of a Leninist style party-state in Taiwan and its implications for China - still governed under a Leninist system. It also assesses the process of democratic consolidation and the political, military and diplomatic reality which constrains democratization in Taiwan.

Taiwan faces many of the same challenges as most newly democratized nations such as the legacy of an authoritarian government, a traditional culture, ethnic division and non-majoritarian political institutions. Each chapter in this volume sheds light on the democratization process. The contributors examine questions concerning the state of political trust, ethnicity, democratic values and political institutions. In the post-Cold War era when America's foreign policy is focusing on how best to foster democratic transition throughout the world, the lessons that can be learned from Taiwan's democratization impart valuable lessons to students and scholars.

Taiwan has become a democracy despite the inability of its political elite to agree on the national identity of the state. This is a study of the history of democratisation in the light of the national identity problem, based on interviews with leading figures in the KMT and opposition parties.

Is the Nationalist party of China (Kuomintang, or KMT) the villain it is sometimes portrayed to be? Or is it the embodiment of the political and moral good that partisans have claimed it to be? The KMT has managed an incredible feat of economic modernization in Taiwan and has become a proponent of democracy, yet its reputation has been marred by brutal acts of repression and by ineptitude. Focusing on the role of KMT party elites in the democratization process. Steven Hood considers the KMT's evolution from a Leninist party-state to a fractious party in a competitive political system. Many contemporary studies suggest that democratization is the product of decisions, compromises, and accidents - the result of relatively short-term confrontations among elites in the opposition and softliners and hardliners within authoritarian regimes. Although these factors are important, the democratization of Taiwan has been a long-term process of elites wrestling within the confines of existing political institutions. Taiwan's case study reminds us that we need to revisit the prerequisites that must underline a true democracy - factors that are too often ignored or dismissed by scholars studying the democratization process.

Consolidating Taiwan's Democracy assesses the often-heard argument that political change in Taiwan, especially that resulting from recent elections that brought a change of ruling parties (first in the executive branch of government and then the legislative branch), proves that Taiwan's democratization has been "finalized" or consolidated. The author sees both positive and negative aspects to democracy's consolidation in Taiwan.

Taiwan's first presidential election, in 1996, sparked a Sino-U.S. military showdown that resulted in the biggest show of U.S. naval force in East Asia since the Vietnam War. This book is the first to explore the origins and triangular dynamics of that historic confrontation. Analyzing the key decisions and misperceptions that led to the Taiwan Strait crisis, Garver warns that it may usher in a more confrontational era of Sino-U.S. relations. China is already emerging as an economic powerhouse and fears of its becoming an expansionist military power have grown in recent years as China has rapidly built up its armed forces since 1989. It has also adopted a more assertive stance in several territorial disputes with its neighbors, arousing new security concerns for Asia as a whole. When China tried to intimidate Taiwan's voters by firing missiles and conducting large-scale military exercises off its coasts in the period preceding the 1996 election, the U.S. dispatched two aircraft carrier battle groups to Taiwan. The prestige of all sides was fully engaged as powerful do domestic interests demanded an assertive posture. Eventually, China adopted a more cautious stance and the crisis passed. But it marked the first instance of Chinese nuclear coercion of the U.S. and gave the "China threat" new credence in the U.S. and elsewhere in Asia. The author has studied the Taiwan question for more than 30 years and has witnessed first-hand the growth and culmination of Taiwan's democratization. This sober, mature reflection of decades of thought is certain to inform the debate on the "China threat" and the future of Sino-U.S. relations.

This title provides an overview of the Democratic Progressive Party of Taiwan, its history, policies, and structure. It traces the party's origins in opposition movements of the 1960s and 1970s and recounts how it was founded in defiance of martial law in 1986.