in economic growth. The driving force behind this growth was the industry sector coming about. The rate ofgrowth of the industry sector from 1950 to the 1970s was one of fastest ever recorded. The reasons for this surge of industry are attributed to many factors. As stated earlier,with increased agricultural productivity and output, more people were able to go get jobsin the industry field, thus creating a large workforce. With the increase in the workforceand an increase in jobs, productivity had a substantial increase as well. Another factor inexplaining the growth of the industry was the aid Taiwan received from the United States. The US gave millions of dollars to Taiwan up in the mid-1960s, which by that time hadgiven enough for Taiwan to start growing on its own. When the government tookcontrol of all industries in the 1940s, it did so under the assumption that it was needed forthe success of the country. However by the 1960s, much of the industry was being soldoff by the government and sold to the public, thus stimulating the want of the public tobecome involved in ownership and industry related activities. (Copper, 1999: 133)Compared to many authoritarian regimes, the success of Taiwan in terms ofeconomic standing was a startling success. Ironically, it was this same success thatbrought about the issue of democratization. (Sorensen, 1998: 38). When taking a look atTaiwan, many people criticize the KMT for its authoritarian regime and its martial law,claiming it only impeded the road toward democratization. Then there are those that saythe martial law and authoritarian regime that it functioned under was a necessity, claimingthat it gave Taiwan the time it needed to bring about the social and economic stabilityneeded for a democracy to stand on and be able to function on. (Copper 1999: 95) Itwasnt until the middle of the 1980s, that Taiwan took its first stride in decades towardfull democratization with the abolishme...
