"The Power of the Ballot Box analyzes the impact on Taiwanese politics of the "Third Wave" of democratization that swept across East Asia in the last decades of the twentieth century. Christian Schafferer's work looks beyond regional and global causes to pinpoint the true indigenous foundations of Taiwan's - and on a broader scale East Asia's - political development, and examines the pivotal importance of Taiwanese local elections in the island's democratization process."--BOOK JACKET.