ABSTRACT
In the previous chapters, we presented various "stylized facts" from cross-national research that show the difficulty of pursuing successfully and simultaneously the entire array of policy values such as growth, equity, stability, security, and democracy. Indeed, much of this research indicates that these values tend to impose hard tradeoffs on public officials and, therefore, present formidable policy constraints to the officials' decision-making processes. The question then arises as to why some national elites are evidently better able to skirt or postpone such constraints than others. To the extent that we have been persuasive in our argument, the reader would perhaps agree that Taiwan offers an example of relative national success in these regards in comparison with both its own past and the performances of other developing countries.
