As Taiwan become more democratized, did the political tolerances of the public increase? Did different characteristics of the public have different target groups? Did people change their views of target groups? In addition, what factors influenced the attitude of political tolerance? Were those factors stable enough? This paper used Sullivan's content-controlled measure to test the concept of political tolerance. We provided respondents with a list of potentially unpopular groups, and asked them to choose the most dangerous group in this society. Then respondents were further asked whether they agreed or disagreed with giving that group a list of political rights. Comparing the data from 1992 and 1998, we found that the rate of political tolerance did not increase as Taiwan became more democratic. In both years, communists were the least liked group. But, the public had changed its view toward the group of independent promoters and unification advocates. Different groups of people chose different target groups. With regard to the factors influencing the attitude of political tolerance, this paper found that education, democratic values, party preference, position toward unification and independence, and target groups were all significantly related with political tolerance, but no sex, age, or group participation. This paper further used 2003 and 2004 TEDs data; we found that in more open societies, the public was more willing to give opposition groups political rights.
