ABSTRACT
The presidential election of 1996 in the Republic of China (ROC) on Taiwan could be taken as a watershed event marking the considerable success of the island’s evolution during the postwar era. Politically, the first-ever direct election of the president represented the culmination of Taiwan’s democratic transition from the late 1980s through the early 1990s, which had been far more peaceful and consensual than almost anyone had foreseen. In particular, President Lee Teng-hui, who won a convincing victory at the polls in 1996, had transformed the ruling Kuomintang (KMT) or Nationalist Party from a widely perceived instrument of domination by minority Mainlanders to a Taiwanese party that was actively seeking ethnic reconciliation and justice. Moreover, the election of the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) Chen Shui-bian as president in 2000 underlined the success and “consolidation” of Taiwan’s democratic transition.
