本文的主要目標剖析統治菁英與在臺灣政治自由化過程中扮演的角色、互動過程及其影響。誠如許多研究民主轉型的學者所同意，政治自由化過程確切的起點終點為何，乃是一不易回答的問題。但是要指出政治目由化的關鍵時刻或時段，則遠較容易。臺灣戒嚴統治的解凍，或者說政治自由化的關鍵期大約是在一九八四到一九八七之間。在這段時間，三個重大事件(critical episodes)即黨內外溝通、民進黨組黨和國民黨解嚴，構成了政治自由化的主軸。本文即針對這段期間所發生的三大事件加以分析；文章重點不是在於單純歷史事件的記錄與描述，而在統治菁英與反對菁英為實現各自的目標，如何深思熟慮、精打細算地決定採取各種策略與選擇。 本文的主要結論有三。首先，臺灣政治自由化是反對勢力長期努力推動，而國民黨統治集團在最後緊要關頭讓步的結果。這就是說，臺灣政治自由化絕非是執政當局主導(Regime-led)的結果。第二，在一九八四年到一九八七臺灣政治自由化的關鍵時期，黨外反對勢力在集體領導下的表現可圈可點，是終結臺灣戒嚴體制的一個要因素，在那一段時間中，反對陣營的主要領導者有意避談臺灣獨立的問題，且避免直接挑戰蔣經國個人的權威，以及公開表態支持回歸憲政，有助於化解立即的政治危機。第三，蔣經國總統確實在臺灣威權體制解凍過程中扮演了一個重要的角色。然而，在評估蔣經國的歷史功過，及詮釋他晚年所採取的種種和自由化有關的政策措施時，學界迄無定論。蔣經國晚年不少重要談話皆環繞在國家認同與省籍情結上。他顯然對臺灣底層的政治社會矛盾有相當深刻的體認。政治自由化，對他而言，似乎是從根解決臺灣基本政治社會矛盾，但不可欲(necessary but undesirable)的措施。

In this article, I analyze elite interaction and decisions in the critical period of Taiwan’s regime change, 1984 to 1987. During this short span of time, the ruing KMT, contrary to its usual practices, sought to accommodate the expanding native opposition forces. Scrutinizing three critical episodes, I come up with three major arguments. First, political liberalization in Taiwan was not a regime-led or state-initiated reform. The decision to consider moving toward liberalization was forced on the state by elements from below and form above. Second, the leadership of the Tang-Wai opposition forces deserves some credit for the course of liberalization. Some intelligent moves of the opposition leaders considerably helped to reduce the KMT leaders’ anxiety over the issues of national identity and political violence. Finally, the late president Chiang Ching-kuo played a critical role in the narrative of liberalization in Taiwan. Although it is an overstatement to say the Chiang was “the real architect of Taiwan’s democratic engineering,” several measures which Chiang implemented before his death did have a significant impact on the path of political development.