From Outcast to Established Players - The Transformation of Non-Democratic Parties After Democratization

Abstract

This dissertation investigates and examine how the Kuomintang has

managed to weather critical challenges presented by the liberalization and

democratization of Taiwan, while maintaining its political presence and

consequently reconsolidating its crushing political dominance by recapturing the

presidential seat and obtaining the most votes any presidential candidate in the

history of Taiwan has ever captured.

The Kuomintang is anything but a pesky insect that refuses to go away.

The Kuomintang is a tightly run, self-sustaining, and highly disciplined political

machine that is deeply entrenched in all aspects of Taiwanese society through

institutions at both the national and local level, as well as through different

dimensions of institutions in the form of the five yuans, electoral rules, and local

bureaucracies and representative offices. These institutions are essential to the

Kuomintang's survival in Taiwan. This mutually engaging and interactive

institutional relationship has helped sustain the Kuomintang for more than a

century.

The Kuomintang's astonishing political success is a result of the

collaborative, interlocking nature of national institutions, and most importantly,

the Kuomintang's deep entrenchment in local institutions, along with the

Kuomintang's cultivation of clientele and paternalistic social relationships.