ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on party systems in the three democracies of East Asia perform. It discusses the implications for democratic consolidation that stem from the specific problems. The chapter also discusses the factors that can explain why East Asian party systems have so far not been able to overcome their deficiencies. It shows that while differences in party organization are rooted in historical factors, the divergent development of linkage mechanisms has primarily been driven by voters' evaluations of political parties' ability to sustain economic growth. In post-authoritarian Taiwan, the two-party system has consolidated around the former regime party, the Kuomintang, and the Democratic Progressive Party, which emerged out of the pro-democratic dangwai movement. Under Japan's "1955 system", politicians of the dominant Liberal Democratic Party relied on a mix of three primary strategies to cultivate clientelistic linkages with the electorate.
