Growing Civil Society and Democratic Evolution between 1987 and 2000

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3.2 Growing Civil Society and Democratic Evolution between 1987 and 2000

3.2.1 Economic growth and a favorable environment for civil society

From 1986 to 1997, the civil society grew prosperously with the economic

development. Unlike the first stage when the society was under absolute state control by highly suppressed or coercive means; the state held a more tolerant attitude towards the development of civil society. Moreover, when the populace experience local level of democratic participation, it brought “grassroots democracy to Taiwan”.

(Copper, 1996, p. 4) With more economic resources that came along with

industrialization, the civil society became more influential when dealt with the state.

The state and the society had been moving consistently in pursuing economic development, and forming a reciprocal interaction. Political and social forces

converged on the same stream of economic development and a cooperated mechanism was formed under the capitalism. This new social stratum had the economic and intellectual clout to organize social movements and demand political rights.

The correlation between the economic factors and the democratic development has been discussed in chapter two. Observing the process of Taiwan’s democratization, it is undeniable that the economic growth and middle class factors had noticeable effects on the emerging of the various social groups. The accumulated resources strengthened the power of civil society to negotiate with the state to release more autonomy. As Chu and Lin state that “social transformation brought about by the rapid industrialization and the accompanying demographic changes tended to enhance the mobilizing capacity of opposition candidates.” (Chu &Lin, 2001, p.120) The

autonomous demands and political awareness from a rising civil society had enabled Taiwan to gradually open up and accelerate the process of democratic transition. The

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basic needs were advocated through different social mobilizations, such as consumers movements, environmental protests, women’s movements, human rights movements, student movements, and so on.

The saturated demands from the society had pressed the authority to take a more responsive attitude to maintain the systematical balance. The power of civil society had shifted from low political demands to high political ends of transformation. Wang notes that “since 1983, the Tangwai movement, which formally became DPP in 1986, escalated its confrontation with the regime on issues of democratic reform, ethnic cleavage and Taiwan’s future by organizing dissident movements and participating in local level elections.” (Wang, 2012, p.163) The relations had been changed through the interaction process when political demands were made by the society. The state was pressed to take more active attitude to loosen political control and leave more autonomy for the society.

3.2.2 The lifting of martial law and democratic reforms

The political leaders were aware that the demand of reforms had become

overwhelming. The state leader, Chiang Ching-kuo, made a critical decision to lift martial law. It was a milestone for democratic development in Taiwan when Chiang Ching-kuo proclaimed the lifting of martial law in 1987, which had promulgated for nearly forty years. There was confrontational force in the political arena after the opposition DPP had formed without being imposed political sanctions. This further conducted to a more genial atmosphere for social activists to raise multiple advocacies.

In the late 1980s, social movements aligned with political movements to become joint forces to resist the state’s restraint.

The social groups bolstered up the DPP because “they believe[d] that an

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opposition party [was] needed to maintain a genuine democratic system”, rather than accredit to the DPP’s ideology. (Lu, 1991, p 133) In this way, it helped reduce the cost of mobilizations, and increased the bargaining chips. The emerging civil society enlarged when different social groups jointly made their claims on the state. The demands from the society created a great momentum and paved a way to more democratic reforms.

In 1988, the ban on newspapers was lifted and more open and free information was able to be retrieve by the public. Tien notes that “before early 1988, when law and government policy restricted the publication of daily newspapers, political journals- published either weekly or monthly- were the most popular format for the opposition press.” (Tien, 1991, p 46) Abolishing the ban on the newspaper, which was a big step for the press liberalization, enabled the general public to receive

information with multiple perspectives. With the flourish of evidence, the society was empowered with more autonomy and accelerated the democratic development.

A series of reform coincided with what Dahl argued to be democracy as citizens were able to “formulate their preferences, signify their preferences to their fellow citizens and the government by individual and collective action, and have their

preferences weighed equally in the conduct of government.” (Dahl, 1971, p.2) In 1990, the Wild Lily student movement, a large scale of student sit-in at Memorial Square in Taipei, demonstrated a rising civil society which clashed with the state power. The student group appealed for Taiwan’s direct presidential elections and National Assembly reform. Wild Lily student movement was considered as a critical turning point in bringing up dialogues between political elites and civil society. The then incumbent president, Lee Teng-Hui, negotiated with the students and promised to take on democratic reforms. Six years later, the first direct presidential election was held which marked the summit of Taiwan’s democratic reforms. Lee Teng-Hui became the

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first direct elected president by winning the support of the society.

Democratic consolidation was still processing over the subsequent years. The institutional designs were gradually opening up for the opposition of the government to compete in the frequent election. The democratic development in Taiwan ushered in a new phase when the political earthquake⁹ of the 2000 presidential election pushed the DPP into power.