Electoral Politics in Taiwan

Abstract

Electoral politics in Taiwan has undergone drastic changes in the past few years. The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), established in 1986, has proven to be a viable political force, challenging the long-ruling Kuomintang (KMT). The KMT's dominance has been further threatened by the defection of some KMT members, who formed the New Party (NP) in 1993. In the 1995 legislative Yuan election, the NP won 21 out of 164 seats, the DPP won 54 seats (an increase of two seats), and the KMT won 85 seats, permitting it to remain the ruling party. The objective of this article is to study the interaction between policy formation and electoral competition in the Republic of China. We assume that, all things being equal, voters tend to support the party whose platform is closer to their ideal points on issues. Therefore, given the preference distribution of voters on issues, parties form a policy platform to attract electoral support. Accordingly, we hope to understand what issues have a significant influence on voters in their choice of parties in Taiwan. In section 1, we establish a general framework of policy formation and electoral politics. In section 2, we examine the process by which parties in Taiwan jockey for positions on issues as well as their effort to manipulate the salience of various issues. In section 3, we draw conclusions from this analysis of Taiwan's electoral process.