ABSTRACT
The dramatic transformation of Taiwan from an authoritarian state incor-
porating a few Leninist features in its political system prior to 1986, into a
functioning democracy within a decade, raises a question at once obvious
and significant: what instructive lessons can regional neighbours learn from
this? The focus of this chapter is on teasing out the wider implications of
this momentous change, delineating for this purpose the main driving forces
that propelled democratization and the most salient aspects in the chronol-
ogy of how this democratization came to be achieved.
