Scholarly works on Taiwan’s transformations have usually followed either an exclusive state-centred or society-centred approach in the study of the instutionalisation of human rights on the island. Using a state–society framework, this article investigates the extent of institutionalisation of human rights in Taiwan’s transitional society. Covering origin, transformation, impediments and espousals, creation of governmental and non-governmental institutions and re-institutionalisation, as junctures in the sequence of institutionalisation of human rights, this work helps to generate a better understanding of the transition and of the social and political forces that have contributed to this process in contemporary Taiwan. The inclusions and exclusions with respect to the societal factors and an inquiry into the nature of power distribution and state legitimacy could divulge the inputs for such an inquiry. Multiple factors influence the institutionalisation process and the transformation is necessarily a gradual and often pain-ful one, since efforts have to be geared towards both promoting and preserving the gains and preventing any backsliding.
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