ABSTRACT

Although there is a common consensus that 1987 was the most critical year in Taiwan’s social and political transformation after World War II, as it witnessed the lifting of martial law, which had been effective for 38 years, the social forces behind this decision started to gain strength in the early 1980s. The development of civil society, in terms of increasing numbers of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and non-profit organizations (NPOs) pursuing objectives of philanthropy/service, advocacy/reform, and community development, took off during that time. Such visible growth of civil society organizational activism cannot be simply seen as the direct societal consequence of the lifting of martial law in 1987; rather it should be understood as one vital driving force to make the sequences of political transformation possible. The historic breakthrough from civil society formation to the challenging of the authoritarian KMT party state on various social reform issues was unthinkable during the previous three decades from the 1950s to the 1970s.