Democratizing Transition in Taiwan

At 6:05 on the evening of September 28, 1986, Taiwan opposition leader Fei Hsi-p'ing stood up in a meeting room of Taipei's Grand Hotel and announced, "The Democratic Progressive Party is established!"Capping a series of remarkable moves by both the ruling Kuomintang (KMT) and the non-party opposition (tang-wai, hereafter TW), this announcement and its aftermath marked a potentially epochal step in Taiwan's political evolution.It also broke precedent in the worldwide evolution of Leninist-style political systems, none of which has ever before tolerated the formation of a significant opposition party.The bold changes in Taiwan drew attention on the other side of the Taiwan Straits, where political reform was also a focus of attention, and raised questions for U.S. foreign policy.Taiwan's party system reform warrants a careful examination of the participants' motives, the reform process, the potential impact within Taiwan and outside, and the reforms' theoretical significance. 1950-1986: Liberalization of a Leninist Party-StateThe Kuomintang was shaped by its founder, Sun Yat-sen, under Comintem tutelage in the 1920s as a Leninist-style party.The basic party structure established then endures today: selective membership recruitment; a revolutionary and nationalist ideology; a centralized decision-making structure under a Central Committee; a policy-making Central Standing Committee and a policy-implementing secretariat with organization, intelligence, and propaganda departments; control of the army through a political cadre system; maintenance of a youth league; leadership over the policies and personnel of the state apparatus; and-until recently-intoler-(2)