This study attempts to explain Taiwan's democratic transition in the mid-1980s by looking at its macro historical-developmental processes and micro shifts in mass democratic values and voting behavior. / It is found that democratization has been delayed but not denied as it has remained one of the fundamental goals in Taiwan's postwar development. Democracy was postponed in the interest of achieving political stability in the 1950s and economic growth in the 1960s. However, by the late 1970s tangible progress towards the goals of democratization had become indispensable for both continued sociopolitical stability and economic growth. / Two macro trends of liberalizing changes associated with socioeconomic development are identified, which converged and resulted in Taiwan's democratic transition in the mid-1980s. Top-down liberalization as Taiwanization was introduced by the ruling KMT to revitalize the political system beginning in the early 1970s. Paralleling postwar socioeconomic development, a bottom-up democratizing movement emerged along with the extension of elections and finally gave rise to an organized opposition. When the first meaningful opposition party was formed, Taiwan experienced a democratic transition with the lifting of martial law and the legitimizing of opposition parties in the mid-1980s. / Findings at the micro level show an emerging democratic sub-culture characterizing Taiwan's changing political culture. Shifts in democratic values increased one's likelihood of opposition voting. Education has been identified as the most important predictor for democratic values and other civic orientations. In turn, an individual's opposition voting is mainly a product of democratic values. In addition ethnicity, education, and political efficacy are shown to have significant effects on voting for the opposition. / In sum, Taiwan's socioeconomic development provided the necessary macro trends that encouraged democratic development. Education is found to be the major link between socioeconomic change and democratization, while the shift in democratic values was the dynamics. As a result, a democratic value cleavage emerged as the basis of opposition politics. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 51-07, Section: A, page: 2513. / Major Professor: Scott C. Flanagan. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1990.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_78276 |
| Contributors | Shyu, Huo-Yan., Florida State University |
| Source Sets | Florida State University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text |
| Format | 408 p. |
| Rights | On campus use only. |
| Relation | Dissertation Abstracts International |
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