Why Can’t the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Win the Majority of the Farmers’ Association Elections? A Case Study of the 2017 Elections in Tanzi and Daya Districts in Taichung City
Author: Li-ya Chen, Yeh-lih Wang
Abstract / Chinese PDF Download
The district farmers’ associations in Taichung have long been dominated by the local Red and Black factions. Despite the fact that the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) won more than half of the mayor positions in the municipal elections in 2014 plus the presidential election in 2016, the party failed to break the deep-rooted local faction control of Taichung district farmers’ associations and achieved little success in those elections in 2017. We propose that as long as the local factions could either enhance the performances of the farmers’ associations, or maintain the balance of power within the associations, the factions would be able to sustain their longstanding control over the farmers’ association regardless. By looking into the farmers’ associations of the Tanzi and Daya Districts in Taichung City, despite their similar backgrounds, we examined how they achieved different results in the 2017 elections, and we are therefore able to substantiate our proposed views. We also hope that such analyses would be applicable to other farmers’ association elections in Taichung.