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TAIWAN's RECENT ELECTIONS: FULFILLING the DEMOCRATIC PROMISE John F

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TAIWAN's RECENT ELECTIONS: FULFILLING the DEMOCRATIC PROMISE John F TAIWAN'S RECENT ELECTIONS: FULFILLING THE DEMOCRATIC PROMISE John F. Copper TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Preface . 1 Chapter 1 Political Change and Elections: 1985-89 . 3 Chapter 2 The 1985 Nationwide Local Elections......... 27 Chapter 3 The 1986 National Election. 45 Chapter 4 The 1989 National and Local Elections . 65 Chapter 5 Summary and Conclusions. 87 Appendix I Public Officials Election and Recall Law . 103 Appendix II Civic Organization Law (excerpts) . 145 Appendix III Statute on the Voluntary Retirement of Senior Parliamentarians . 151 Appendix IV Election Statistics . 157 Selected Bibliography . 159 Index....................................................... 165 About the Author . 175 PUBLISHER'S NOTE Chapters 2, 3 and 4 of this work were taken from articles written by the author and previously published in the following journals: Chapter 2, Asian Affairs, Spring 1986, pp. 27-45 Chapter 3, Asian Thought and Society, July 1987, pp. 115-136 Chapter 4, Journal of Northeast Asian Studies, Spring 1990, pp. 22-40 The publisher wishes to thank these journals for permissions granted. The articles were edited or shortened for use here. PREFACE In 1984, the author, with Professor George P. Chen, published the book Taiwan's Elections: Political Development and Democratiza­ tion in the Republic of China. We assessed Taiwan's political system as it related to election politics, early local elections, national supple­ mentary elections beginning in 1969, and the watershed competitive national election in 1980--which inaugurated democratic politics in Taiwan at the national level. That work also included a chapter on the 1983 national election, which proved to many observers that the 1980 election had not been just a show offered during an "election holiday" or a temporary democratic event. The present volume covers the elections since 1983. Included are the nationwide national election in 1985, the first two-party election in Taiwan's history (or for that matter ever in a Chinese nation) in 1986, and the "dual" 1989 election-which many observers perceived to be another breakthrough-perhaps the final step in routinizing a compet­ itive election process that will serve as the foundation for a fully demo­ cratic system. Hence, three different kinds of elections are assessed in this work: an election of local officials, a national election of both of the major elective bodies (the Legislative Yuan and the National Assembly), and a "combination" election of the Legislative Yuan and local offices. All, however, were national and of lasting influence. During the period covered, a number of events occurred that changed the electoral processes and profoundly influenced politics in the Republic of China. Most were calculated; some were not. Several were formalized in legislative acts. These changes are discussed in Chapter 1. It is almost axiomatic to say that elections have been a major contributing force behind the democratization process in Taiwan. The discussions in the chapters 2, 3, and 4 will so indicate. The analyses of these elections reflect, in the opinion of the author, that the Republic of China is a transformed nation: from authoritarianism to near or perhaps even full democracy. That transition has been rapid. It may have been faster than the democratization process in any nation in recent history where violence and upheaval have not been a part of the process. For that reason Taiwan may be a unique model of political modernization. (1) 2 CONTEMPORARY ASIAN STUDIES SERIES The author wishes to thank Professor George P. Chen for sharing his wisdom on both the issues and the elections themselves and June T. Dreyer, who organized and led two of the election observer teams in which I participated when I saw firsthand the 1986 and the 1989 elections. I also want to express my gratitude to the Pacific Cultural Foundation for support that helped make possible the publishing of this work. I will assume responsibility for any errors herein. John F. Copper Memphis, Tennessee CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCfiON POLITICAL CHANGE AND TAIWAN'S ELECTIONS- 1985-89 Taiwan, or the Republic of China, is a nation that has clearly experienced profound and broad political change in recent years. It has probably experienced political modernization at a faster rate of speed than any other nation in the world, at least among those that did not self-destruct or fail in an effort to democratize. Certainly few would disagree that political change in Taiwan has been phenomenal and has changed electoral politics in that country. However, this writer can only attempt in cursory fashion to re­ late elections to political development in general. This was done in some detail in the previous volume on Taiwan's elections. 1 Suffice it to say in the way of background that the two are intimately related, and they are related not only by chance, but also by design: Sun Yat-sen, the father of Republican China, put election politics in a central place in his teachings about political modernization and democracy. His plan, most would say, has been largely fulfilled; at least it is proceeding quickly along that path. In this work the author will discuss other more specific relation­ ships: between recent elections and past elections; the role of new political parties, especially the Democratic Progressive Party; the im­ pact of terminating martial law; other important political reforms; the effect of Chiang Ching-kuo's death; Nationalist Party or Kuomintang (KMT) internal reform; efforts to retire elder parliamentary delegates; a new election law; and finally, primary elections. These developments or events have influenced electoral politics during the period when the elections that are assessed below took place. There is much to say about the importance of the elections of 1985, 1986, and 1989. This will be done in the next three chapters. These elections reveal profound changes in electoral politics in Taiwan and offer proof regarding how far the democratization process has I. For a general discussion, see John F. Copper with George P. Chen, Taiwan's Elec­ tions: Political Development and Democratization in the Republic of China (Baltimore: University of Maryland School of Law, 1984.) (3) 4 CONTEMPORARY ASIAN STUDIES SERIES gone. Some estimates of the impact of these elections and the election process itself will be made in the concluding chapter. Prior Elections Scholars who assess elections in any nation where elections are meaningful political contests try to put any one election in perspective by examining previous elections. There are always trends. There are unresolved issues. Electoral politics evolve. Looking briefly at Tai­ wan's elections from 1950 to 1983 will aid the reader in putting the elections treated here in proper context and help them make sense. Considering these earlier elections is especially useful in gaining an understanding of several important trends: the development of a com­ petitive party system, the evolution of freer and more competitive elec­ tions, and progressively refined election strategies and tactics. The history of elections in Taiwan, if one defines elections as something other than efforts to create some kind of barely representa­ tive bodies under a colonial government, began in 1950. Only one year after the Nationalists moved to Taiwan following their defeat on the mainland, they held island-wide local elections. Nationalist lead­ ers realized that they had failed in the war with the Communists; that they had to reform the Party and government of which they were a part; and do a better job in putting Sun Yat-sen's teachings about political development and democracy into practice. So they engineered election politics in local government in Tai­ wan. This did not overly upset those in the Nationalist government who had an authoritarian bent and/or distrusted the local population. Nor could they use the argument of an external threat to delay the process. They had long contended that there needed to be a secure environment before the democracy-building effort could proceed. A secure environment was provided: the U.S. had neutralized the Tai­ wan Strait in mid-1950, and Taiwan was protected from the threat of Mao's army, which soon became involved in the Korean War anyway. They did not trust the local population. But Nationalist leaders could, after a fashion, assume the role officials played in ancient China and exert authority, even control, in local politics by serving as in­ termediaries. Local politics in Taiwan was infused with centrifugal forces; factional rivalries, in fact, threatened the fabric of local politics. Taiwanese leaders have since denied that local politics was so faction­ alized and contend that they knew how to practice democracy better than the Nationalists. They have argued Taiwan would have democ­ racy from the "bottom up." As time passed this disagreement served TAIWAN'S RECENT ELECTIONS 5 to cause the two to compete, but not in a hostile way, rather to make democracy more functional and less an object of contention between the two groups. 2 Throughout the 1950s and 1960s there were meaningful local elections in Taiwan. They served as the foundation for democratic politics in Taiwan. Officials were chosen by the people. Many of these democratically-elected officials subsequently rose to become national figures. (In Taiwan, local office serves as a better stepping stone to national politics than in most nations.) Local officials early on felt that successful elections below the na­ tional level proved that Taiwan would become democratic through a "seeping up" process. But they also accepted the reality that ethnic tensions between the Mainlander Chinese and the locally-born Chi­ nese, or Taiwanese, was an impediment to democracy from above. Likewise they were cognizant of the fact that the U.S. and many other nations in the international community espoused a one-China policy (at first favoring Taipei but later Beijing); this meant that Taiwan could not repudiate its claim to represent "greater China" justifying systemic political links with a territory and people not under the gov­ ernment's jurisdiction.
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