« Taiwan Journal of Political Science No.14Publish: 2001/06

The New Party-politics Impacts on Local Faction Politics of Taiwan — The Case Study of Changhua and Kaohsiung Counties and The Analysis of Changing Trends

Author: Yung-mau Chao

Abstract / Chinese PDF Download

According  to  the  case  study  of  Changhua  and  Kaohsiung  counties  for  the party-politics impact on the faction politics, we find that after the presidential election of March 2000, because of the Legislate Yen became more powerful, KMT’s local factions are  getting  more  area-coalition 、 central  coalition 、 central  subgroups  and  central factionalization. In addition, although the faction identification still very sturdy, the local factions has been appeared to be much more party-shifted and utilitarian. Regarding the relationship  between  faction  and  political  party,  due  to  the  James  Sung’s  effect,  local faction  and  local  politics  also  change  into  triple-party  phenomenon  including  the  town and county level. Most of the people who swift the party membership to the People First Party(PFT)  are KMT and non-partisan. Under the circumstance of three–party politics, non-partisan’s  growth  space  is  apparently  constricted.  In  regard  of  the  relationship between  faction  and  socio-economic  circumstance,  in  the  rural  and  remote  area,  KMT and PFPs’ factions have been emerged the trinity coalition phenomenon with mafia and money  politics.  Besides,  under  the  encouragement  of  the  remarkable  success  of magistrate and presidential election in 1997 and 2000, DPP’s central factions are getting more  localized、  newly  allied、mobilized  and  expansive.  In  addition,  the  DPP  local factions  are  changed  to  recruit  more  mafia  and  businessmen,  and  became  even  more secularized, and very much likely turn into be one part of Taiwan local faction ecology. Those    what    caused    reasons    of    DPP    are    the    neo-patron-clientelism    and politics-businessmen  coalition  effects,  especially  under  the  demand  pressure  of  money politics and local faction expansion.

Keywords:local faction、neo-patron-clentelism、party-shifted、politics-businessmen coalition