The Taiwanization of the Constitution of the Republic of China, 1990--2004: National identity, democracy, and constitutional politics in Taiwan

The political changes of the past twenty years of Taiwan can be characterized as the political struggles for the redefinition of Taiwan's history, nationality and the foundation of political legitimacy. This political process can be regarded as two mechanisms entwined together; that is, Taiwanization and democratization and both escalated into the constitutional politics in the seven constitutional revisions. This dissertation attempts to explore these dynamic relations among conflicting national identities, democracy and constitutional politics. I will analyze how the fatung embedded ROC Constitution was transformed into a Taiwan-centered ROC Constitution, why this transformation was possible, and why some constitutional issues emerged and became essential in certain junctures of political struggles. I assert that the nature of conflicting national identities provides a better, more thorough explanation for understanding the constitutional revision process and its politics in the time of democratic transition in Taiwan. Second, I will trace the development and dynamic between Taiwanization and democratization and assert that the democratizing process in Taiwan in the early stage was driven by the rise of Taiwanese consciousness and Taiwanese nationalist sentiment and however, as the democracy formally established in the late 1990s, a new democratic force has arisen---one which provides different political rhetoric from the past and which further cultivates the deepening of Taiwan's democracy. In other words, as I have discovered in the seventh constitutional revision, the identity-driven identity politics, or Taiwanization, having once brought democracy to Taiwan, had somehow lost its progressiveness, and yet nevertheless, the newly emerging, more democratic and less identity-driven forces, joined together to become the political protagonist leading Taiwan to advance to a new level of democracy.