Amazon.com description: Product Description: In the 1980s, after more than 3 decades of single-party authoritarian rule, the Duomintang (KMT) initiated a gradual process of political liberalization in Taiwan and an expansion of democratic politics. This volume places Taiwan's experience with political liberalization in comparative perspective. The authors address a number of issues that are peculiar to the consolidation of democracy in Taiwan, including the nature of relations between indigenous Taiwanese and Mainlanders, the changing role of the KMT, and the country's international political status as a divided nation. They also explore more general factors that have influenced the democratization process: the effects of rapid economic transformation on political development, the formation of counterelites, the emergence of interest groups, and the dynamics of electoral politics in "soft" authoritarian regimes.