過去關於台灣民主化轉型的解釋中,雖然都注意到族群因素,但是由於強調精英政治過程的理論取向之影響,往往視之爲背景或動機因素,而低估了其重要性。透過調查資料的分析,本文指出,本省籍民眾「族群政治意識」在政治轉型前後的升高,是讓此一轉型能夠完成的重要社會條件。本文更進一步針對本省籍民眾族群政治意識由過去不易發展到1980年代中期以後的快速發展,提出一個歷史性的解釋,強調國家想像範圍之改變、傳統政治關係的衰退,以及族群進入選舉過程三者變化的重要性。透過「國會全面改選」的改革過程中,設置「大陸代表制」的攻防,本文說明了1987年以後正式浮現的新「族群」分類概念,在此一轉型過程中所扮演的重要角色。
Although ethnic politics has always been mentioned in previous explanations of Taiwan's transition to democracy, the importance of ethnic factors is usually underestimated because they have been seen as background or motivating factors within the theoretical assumptions of the political process model. By analyzing survey data collected in 1984 and 1994, this paper points out that the dramatic change in the level of consciousness of ethnic politics among Taiwanese was a crucial precipitating factor for democratization. This paper further proposes an explanatory framework emphasizing changes in the perception of national boundaries, the decay of traditional political ties, and the presence of ethnic factors in electoral competition, to account for the rapid development of ethnic political consciousness among Taiwanese after the mid-1980s. By analyzing the reform of the parliamentary structure without considering ”mainland representation,” this paper demonstrates that the new perception of ethnicity developed after 1987 played an important role in Taiwan's democratization.