ABSTRACT
Against the backdrop of its transformation from authoritarian rule to democracy and the arrival of the post-Cold War era, Taiwan's political economy has undergone rapid changes in the past decade. Specific patterns of domination by the state over society characterized authoritarian rule in Taiwan, but these patterns have been reshaped gradually into more liberal ones as authoritarian structures have been dismantled. In this transformation, elections have played a pivotal role in restructuring state-society relations whether as a tool used by different social actors or as a mechanism for collusion or collision with other groups or actors.
