Measurement of Party Position and Party Competition in Taiwan

Abstract

This study examines and evaluates the existing research on party position in Taiwan and what this literature reveals about the state of inter-party competition during the island`s first fifteen years of multiparty elections. There has been an increasing diversity in methodologies used to measure party position in Taiwan, including mass and elite surveys, propaganda content analysis, and elite interviews. Too much of the research has been carried out in isolation by individual researchers, however, with little reference to other existing studies. Many studies have focused on single years and used completely different measurement systems, making time series analysis impossible. There is a need for these schemes to become institutionalized and carried out by wider research teams rather than single scholars. This study argues that the existing data shows that between 1991 and 2000 Taiwan`s parties moved from polarized positions toward a pattern of moderate differentiation, similar to parties in mature democracies. Taiwan`s parties do stress issues, compete on multiple issue cleavages, and-although having shown a degree of movement toward the center-remain clearly differentiated. The case is not so clear for the post-2000 period. Party image surveys show signs of increased polarization. However, while party propaganda analysis shows that the smaller parties have moved toward the poles, the difference between major parties has continued to blur.