ABSTRACT
The KMT’s defeat in the March 2000 presidential election is a watershed in Taiwan’s political history. After ruling Taiwan for over five decades, this date marks the end of the KMT era and the start of the DPP era. This chapter examines the degree that Taiwan’s parties and inter-party competition have changed since the turnover in ruling parties. Have Taiwan’s parties maintained the relatively consistent and distinct policy-based identities that they offered voters during the 1990s? And, are the parties reverting to more polarized positions, with all its inherent dangers for democratic stability? Or has inter-party competition continued to follow the pattern of moderate differentiation that was established by the mid-1990s? This study has shown how the direction of party change in Taiwan has been determined by the balance of power within parties between electionorientated and ideologically orientated factions and leaders. Election-orientated leaders were dominant in Taiwan’s leading parties by the mid-1990s, how has the balance of power shifted since 2001?
