The rise and fall of civil society movements in Taiwan: 1920-2020

This chapter intends to depict and analyze three rising waves of civil society movements; the Taiwanese local gentry class-intellectuals led sociocultural and political movements in 1920-1940, the new middle class led social reforms and pro-democracy movements in 1980-2000 and the new middle class, Äìyouth joint force led movements for consolidating the nascent democracy. The following major issues are tackled: 1. What are the different causes, objectives and inspiration sources of the civil society organized movements under the three types of regimes; colonial, authoritarian and democratic? 2. Who are the key leaders of the above different social movements? 3. How have the different civil society movements conveyed and exerted appeals and pressures to the public and on the respective states? 4. How to assess the success and failure of the domestically derived social movements under the three different periods? It concludes that the 100 years of Taiwan experience demonstrated that potential and inherent civil society force. Second, the major constituents of leading elites differed among different waves; Third, the three waves of different civil society movements have individually influenced the public mindset and ethos and even pressured the respective regimes over the past 100 years.