Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- List of Figures
- List of Tables
- List of Contributors
- Acknowledgments
- 1 Introduction: Rethinking Party System Institutionalization in Asia
- 2 The Antidemocratic Potential of Party System Institutionalization: Malaysia as Morality Tale?
- 3 Institutionalized Succession and Hegemonic Party Cohesion in Singapore
- 4 Party System Institutionalization in Japan
- 5 Long in the Making: Taiwan’s Institutionalized Party System
- 6 The Making and Unmaking of the Communist Party and Single-Party System of Vietnam
- 7 The Institutionalization of the Communist Party and the Party System in China
- 8 Party System Institutionalization in India
- 9 Party and Party System Institutionalization in Cambodia
- 10 Explaining Party System Institutionalization in Indonesia
- 11 South Korea’s Weakly Institutionalized Party System
- 12 Thailand’s Feckless Parties and Party System: A Path-Dependent Analysis
- 13 Party and Party System Institutionalization in the Philippines
- 14 Party System Institutionalization: Reflections Based on the Asian Cases
- Index
- References
5 - Long in the Making: Taiwan’s Institutionalized Party System
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 18 December 2014
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- List of Figures
- List of Tables
- List of Contributors
- Acknowledgments
- 1 Introduction: Rethinking Party System Institutionalization in Asia
- 2 The Antidemocratic Potential of Party System Institutionalization: Malaysia as Morality Tale?
- 3 Institutionalized Succession and Hegemonic Party Cohesion in Singapore
- 4 Party System Institutionalization in Japan
- 5 Long in the Making: Taiwan’s Institutionalized Party System
- 6 The Making and Unmaking of the Communist Party and Single-Party System of Vietnam
- 7 The Institutionalization of the Communist Party and the Party System in China
- 8 Party System Institutionalization in India
- 9 Party and Party System Institutionalization in Cambodia
- 10 Explaining Party System Institutionalization in Indonesia
- 11 South Korea’s Weakly Institutionalized Party System
- 12 Thailand’s Feckless Parties and Party System: A Path-Dependent Analysis
- 13 Party and Party System Institutionalization in the Philippines
- 14 Party System Institutionalization: Reflections Based on the Asian Cases
- Index
- References
Summary
Introduction
By any criteria, major parties and the party system in newly democratized Taiwan are fairly institutionalized. The two leading parties – the Nationalist Party or Kuomintang (KMT) and the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) – are enduring, resilient, and well embedded in their support bases. Factions have existed within each party, and factional conflict can be acute, but factionalism has not undermined party coherence or identity. During the extended period of democratic transition, the two leading parties – at times, in accord with their affiliated partners – have competed fiercely but principally at the ballot box rather than in the streets or under the shadow of democracy-inhibiting forces such as the military or insurgents. By and large, the two political camps have accepted electoral competition as the only legitimate avenue to power, the emotional confrontation on the street over the contested result of the presidential election in 2004 being a notable exception. The magnitude of electoral volatility has been small by comparison with other young democracies in the region. Typically, the dominant KMT ebbed and the DPP flowed, both incrementally rather than abruptly. With the deepening of democratization, electoral volatility increased, especially in recent elections, but the spikes were transitional, caused by a major electoral reform that has effectively eliminated all small parties.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Party System Institutionalization in AsiaDemocracies, Autocracies, and the Shadows of the Past, pp. 108 - 135Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2014
References
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