ABSTRACT
The presidential election of March 2000 finally brought the Kuomintang
(KMT)’s half-century rule over Taiwan to an end. This event had threefold
significance for researchers of that island. First, it validated Fei and Chu’s
argument1 that Taiwan’s economic miracle would usher in a political miracle. For the first time in any Chinese society, the political change of guard
was accomplished through a fair and open ballot, free of violence. Second,
it furnished a natural coda to the remarkable success story of Taiwan’s
economic metamorphosis.2 Finally, it raised the question whether, in a
Chinese context, successful economic policies could survive a democratic
change of regime. From the perspective of 2 years after that election, we
have sought to address these issues in this paper.
