ABSTRACT
Fifteen years ago, ‘democratic Machiavelli’ Samuel Huntington argued that Taiwan was undergoing a ‘direct transition from a stable authoritarian
system to a stable democratic system,’1 and that liberal democracy based on
pluralism was in an irreversible ongoing process.2 Economically, due to the
success of state-led, export-oriented policies and strategies to accumulate
capital, Taiwan has had no negative growth rate during the past five dec-
ades. Intensive external trade has contributed to a huge accumulation of
wealth. It now has more than US$100 billion of foreign reserves, and vir-
tually no foreign debt. In sum, Taiwan has the most remarkable development among all the newly industrializing countries. The success of Taiwan’s
democratic transformation, together with its shining economic performance
over the past 50 years, seem to present a perfect case for Fukuyama’s theory
of ‘the end of history’.3 On 18 March 2000, Taiwan held its second direct
presidential election. Mr Chen Shui-bian of the Democratic Progressive
Party (DPP) won the election. This ended the rule of Kuomintang (KMT)
on Taiwan. The democratic transition is said to be complete.
