Abstract
Throughout Chinese history, there have been ambitious reforms in the face of external or internal threats. In recent years, socialist China has undertaken a program of reform, or gaige, to cope with an economic crisis arising from problems of lack of incentive.) Across the Taiwan Strait, almost forty years after a successful land reform in the early 1950’s, sweeping political and social changes are also taking place.
Constitutional reform may relate to changes in the constitutional regime establishing the power structure and the protection of funda- mental rights or it may relate only to reorientation of the regulatory system. In addition, reform at either the constitutional or regulatory level may be directed toward achieving efficiency through the rear- rangement of a market/state equilibrium, or it may be designed to enhance democratic legitimacy by increasing citizen involvement in regulatory processes. In this article, I will discuss the changing forces of constitutional and regulatory reform in Taiwan.