for the Republic of China (ROC) in 1945, and viewed theTaiwanese as traitors for being a part of the Japanese army, and for their lost ties totraditional or mainland China. (Copper 35, 1999) It was during this time that corruptionand violence gripped Taiwan, which in essence was used mainly as a production facility ofsupplies for the Nationalists fight against Communism on the mainland. In 1949, theChinese Communist Party completely took over mainland China, resulting in theNationalist government removing itself from the mainland to take up residence in Taiwan. This mass exodus from the mainland gave Taiwan a population that consisted of twentypercent mainlanders. Because of their high influx of people from the mainland, the ROCwas able to stay in power, claiming to still be the ruling body over all of China. (Ferdinand 1996, Pg 5) In looking at Robert Dahls criteria for a fully functional democracy, which includefree, fair, and frequent elections of officials rather than those imposed by the government,as well as freedom of expression, citizenship for all, ability to gather information free ofthe state, and what Dahl refers to as associational autonomy. (Dahl Pg 85). A majority ofthese traits have come about in aiding the evolution of democracies through the formationof a constitution that guarantees these specific ideas. It was during this time that theleader of the KMT, Chiang Kai-Shek made some sweeping changes to how Taiwan wasbeing ruled by that time. To put an end to all the corruption that had occurred during theshort time that Taiwan had been put back in control of China, he executed all those thathad been accused of corruption in the government and brought about a constitution fromthe mainland which set up a system of political bodies to help recreate what the KMT oncehad. The political body which came about was full of provisions for checks and balancesto insure the separation of powers, truly resembling a federal sy...
