This article outlines the contemporary development of approaches to social movements in Taiwan since the rapid political changes of the late 1980s. it maintains that different social movement approaches are not only distinguished by their interpretations but also by the implications they have for social intervention by sociologists. The "Civil Society" approach which emerged in 1987 has become then main argument in providing a sociological understanding of popular movement development since Taiwan's political liberalization. It also helps to rationalize popular resistance against the state's intervention of an "autonomous civil society". The "Resource Mobilization" approach focuses on the actual political process, questioning how the why there was such a "wave" of social movements in the late eighties, while rejecting an over-simplified view of state-society division. Partly in resisting the politicization of social movements since 1989, and partly under the influence of Alain Touraine and Manuel Castells, there also emerged the "Popular Democracy" and "New social Movement" approaches. This paper suggests that there we need to consider two sides for social movement study, the political side and the moral side, and the historical conditions which influence the significance of each of these two sides. This article calls for careful adopting of "Western" theories, and careful examination of Taiwan's historical specifics then attempting to apply them.