The Development of the Opposition

Abstract

The number of political parties in Taiwan reached 82 when the Taiwan Independence Party formally registered with the government in October 1996. In practice there are four major parties. These are the Kuomintang (KMT), the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), the New Party (NP) and the Taiwan Independence Party (TIP). The purpose of this chapter is to examine how this multiparty system emerged, the opposition parties’ structures, their social bases and their strategies. The larger part of the discussion focuses on the two larger opposition parties, the DPP and the NP. At the time of writing, the strength of the TIP has yet to be tested in an election.