ABSTRACT
The purpose of this chapter is to investigate the connections between regime type and governance. This is a tricky issue since governance may refer to a variety of policy concerns, and conceivably, a democracy, as opposed to a nondemocracy, may do better in some policy areas but not necessarily in others. The author first singles out three key features of liberal democracies, namely, free, fair and regular elections, rule of law, and checks and balances, arguing that each of these features may affect the making of public policies in different ways, sometimes positively but sometimes negatively, in democracies as against nondemocracies. In this context, Taiwan provides an interesting case for clarifying the connections between regime type and governance since it transited from authoritarian to democratic rule not long ago but long enough to discern the patterns in both phases. Three diverse policy areas, that is, economic development, political stability, and dealings with the outside world, are discussed in detail to illustrate Taiwan's performance under both the authoritarian and democratic rule. Overall, Taiwan has been a success story politically, economically, and socially despite some setbacks in the international arena due to its contentious relations with China.
