Foreign analysts often refer to Taiwan as a successful economic model for other developing countries, but what do the people themselves think about their quality of life? Are they generally contented or dissatisfied?
Questions of this nature can be answered in terms of social indicator research where people are asked to evaluate their own quality of life. Their answers are then plotted on a fixed scale and compared with other similar research. In 1983, a group of more than thirty social and behavioral scientists, with support from the National Science Council of the R.O.C., initiated a project called the "General Survey of Social Change in Taiwan." As its name suggests, the project is intended to accumulate longitudinal data on social change in Taiwan.
During 1984-1985, researchers-including the writer of this article—collected the first body of data from a weighted sample of more than 4,000 respondents. Because much of the data was pertinent to questions about perceived quality of life, and gave particularly useful insights into social change in Taiwan. FCR asked Professor Michael Mau-kuei Chang to summarize his findings in the following article. The full report may be found in Chang's article, "Perceived Life Quality and Social Class in Taiwan," published in Reform and Revolution in Twentieth Century China (Yu-ming Shaw. ed., Institute of International Relations, Taiwan, Republic of China, 1987).
When asked "how do you rate your current life," the general public tends to rank their lives near the middle of a ten point scale. The average score is 4.99; nearly 72 percent believe they are between 4 and 6. Even though the absolute values of these sorts of scales may be arbitrary, it is clear that a tendency for responses to concentrate around the middle ranking has certain implications.
First, if most people rank their lives around the middle range, they are less likely to be so contented as to have no desire to work harder for a better life. They harbor aspirations for the future. Second, they are also less likely to be so discontented or deprived as to become radical or revolutionary. There is a degree of satisfaction with the status quo, plus enough reasonable expectations to make life essentially optimistic.
The study placed current assessments in context by asking about perception over time. Using the ten point scale, the findings show that people rated cur rent life at 4.99, while five years ago it was 4.22. Optimism for continued improvement seems strong, for the rating respondents predicted for five years in the future is 6.09. Nearly 46 percent of the public believe their lives have improved, and will improve further in the future. Very few of the rest indicated a decline of quality of life, although many indicated that the quality of life has either remained stable or has only improved somewhat. Only a small 1.75 percent of the general public said their quality of life has declined and most likely would continue to do so.
Since neither the upward nor the downward magnitudes are substantively large (it is on the average less than 1.3 on a ten point scale), the findings indicate that there is a generally moderate, upbeat mood among Taiwan's people.
The only caveat is that the public expects the quality of life to improve faster than before, indicating that expectation levels are on the rise. Moreover, as Tai wan continues to modernize, it is likely that an even steeper rise in expectation levels will occur.
The study suggests another question worth pursuing. If Taiwan's people are equally satisfied, then there should be no difference about perceptions of quality of life among people of different social strata. In order to analyze this, the study divided respondents into three class categories: the upper-middle class, which is about 5 percent of the total population and consists mainly of property owners, self-employed professionals, and high-ranking officials; the middle class, with approximately 35 percent of the total population and composed mainly of professionals and upper- and middle-ranking white-collar workers; and the working class, which is about 60 percent of the total population and includes workers, farmers, and low-ranking white-collar workers.
The findings indicate, not surprisingly, that the higher a person's social class, the better one's perceived quality of life. In general, members of the upper-middle class perceive their lives as being better than those of the middle class, and members of the middle class perceive their lives as being better than those of the working class.
This pattern is consistent throughout different time periods, except at "five years from now," where the middle class have higher expectations for improvement in their lives than does the upper-middle class. There are several possible interpretations of this.
First, relatively speaking, the middle class may be the most discontented group in Taiwan. In recent years, Taiwan's middle class has become increasingly involved in social reform activities. Many of the new domestic social movements, such as consumer protectionism, environmental conservation, feminism, the democratization movement and even the labor movement, have been pushed forward or at least actively supported by young professionals, managers, and white-collar workers.
Second, the middle class consists of a new stratum of people in Taiwan, emerging as a result of Taiwan's economic success. Ever since the pace of industrialization and economic growth began to pick up in the 1960s, the restructuring of occupations has continued to draw the younger, relatively well-educated generation into an essentially new world, one that was not even dreamed of by former generations working primarily in agricultural pursuits.
The new middle class is slowly becoming more concerned about such issues as cultural development environmental protection, feminism, and the democratization movement.
This new breed has succeeded in building Taiwan's economy as well as establishing their own upward mobility in society. They not only recognize the changes they have made in society, but they have also sensed the growing opportunities opening before them. As a result, they are a generation of entrepreneurs who maintain high hopes for the future, and are perhaps the most aggressive group of people in contemporary Taiwan. It is not surprising that the middle class has the highest expectations for the future.
The final question in this report asks whether or not there are indications that Taiwan is succeeding in building a more equitable society. Since social class has been found to be useful in predicting perceptions about quality of life, and because the working class is always at the bottom as far as perceived life quality is concerned, it must be said that class differentiations do exist in Taiwan. And people of different classes do feel differently about their quality of life.
Despite this, it must be noted that the study produced another finding worthy of note: class differences alone cannot satisfactorily account for differences in perceptions of quality of life, nor for how much change can be expected in the future. Members of the working class, who are the most deprived class according to much of the research data, not only believe that they have experienced an improvement in life during the last five years, but also that the extent of their improvement in the coming five years will be quite similar to that expected by the upper-middle class and the middle class. Consequently, the class differences do not widen when the reference time is altered. Judging from the subjective perceptions of members of the working class, there is no indication that they were left out during the process of economic growth. Therefore, though the distances among different social groups are not diminishing, neither are they broadening.
All this means that the equality hypothesis is actually neither supported nor rejected. Taiwan is not becoming more equitable nor less equitable in the short run. The conclusions derived from this study indicate that class differences in fact seem to be very stable. And unless there are sudden and prolonged disruptions in the current trend of economic growth, or a swift ideological revolution concerning the justification of existing inequality, analysis of this data suggests a continuing stable relationship among the three groups. Nevertheless, a keen eye should be kept on the subjective feelings of the middle class, for the members of this segment of society have the highest expectations for the future, and hence have the greatest potential for discontent.
Another caveat for this study involves time. The findings were drawn from interviews conducted in 1984 and 1985. Many dramatic social, political, and economic changes have taken place in Taiwan over the past year, changes that are nearly impossible to assess with confidence at this time. In the area of economics alone, 1987 saw the remarkable growth of foreign exchange reserves, where a 69 percent increase raised reserves above US$65 billion. At the same time the New Taiwan dollar (NT$) appreciated 24 percent against U.S. currency.
These events have exerted considerable tension on Taiwan's export businesses, and worries about inflation and recession are in the minds of many people. These are concerns that could well influence people's expectations for their future quality of life.
The changing political environment, ranging from the lifting of the Emergency Decree to new forms of political behavior, also is redefining the aspirations of people in all social classes. Now that individuals and groups have more opportunities to make their concerns public, there has been a significant change in forms of social expression and political behavior, including waves of petitions and street demonstrations raising both old and new demands. In recent months participants in these activities have ranged from fruit growers to union workers, from political oppositionists to military veterans, and from feminists to environmental protectionists. It is an exciting time, for people are changing the ways they think and live at unprecedented rates. As a result, studies such as the one above can serve as valuable base line references for comparison in the years ahead.
At this stage, many observers believe that Taiwan is entering a period of readjustment. Old political forces and rituals are receding while the power of the people is on the rise. After this transformation is completed, and the government has gradually and smoothly relaxed its control of various social and political sectors, public and private, it can be expected that society will become even more competitive. Taiwan will become a society even more characterized by the principles and activities of capitalism. If that time in fact arrives, the differences in quality of life among different social classes are certain to grow, and the gaps among different social groups can also be expected to widen. — (Dr. Michael Mao-kuei Chang is an associate research fellow at the Institute of Ethnology, Academia Sinica, Taipei).