Taiwan's 2000 presidential election

Orbis

Volumn 44, Issue 4, 2000, Pages 599-613

  Robinson, James A ^a   Brown, Deborah A ^b,c  

^a UNIVERSITY OF WEST FLORIDA   (United States)

^b Foreign Policy Research Institute   (United States)

^c SETON HALL UNIVERSITY   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 0242319460     PISSN: 00304387     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1016/s0030-4387(00)00046-6     Document Type: Conference Paper

References (44)

1. An early version of this paper was presented to the Foreign Policy Research Institute's Inter-University Study Group on the United States and Asia on Mar. 29, 2000. A longer version of this article, titled "Taiwan's 2000 Presidential Election: Appraising Steps in Democratization," appeared on Apr. 19, 2000, on China Online (http://www.chinaonline.com/commentary-analysis/intrelations/newsarchive.asp? ctgy+intrelations).
2. Michael Bratton, "Second Elections in Africa," Journal of Democracy, July 1998, pp. 51-66.
3. Valence or style issues are those on which candidates (and parties) do not differ except in the extent to which they accentuate one theme rather than another. Cross-strait relations, for example, constitute a theme on which candidates and parties share similar views, but to which they devote varying degrees of attention. Few voters desire either independence or unification in the near term, and the major parties and candidates adhere to the common stance in favor of the status quo. For the ranking of these themes in the public opinion surveys of 2000, we rely especially on reports of the Election Study Center, National Chengchi University, the results of which were presented to us in an interview with the center's director, Dr. Hung Yung-tai, and colleagues on Mar. 14, 2000.
4. "Opinion Polls Show No Clear Leader," China Times, Mar. 7, 2000, translated and posted at Taiwan Headlines (http://www.taiwanheadlines.gov.tw).
5. That we and others independently remarked that the people of Taiwan, or a decisive plurality of them, "stood up" was an unsubtle reminder of Mao Zedong's similar reference to Chinese people in the days leading up to and during the proclamation of the PRC, late September and October 1, 1949. See Philip Short, Mao: A Biography (New York: Henry Holt, 1999), p. 419.
6. Others who invoked this phrase included Taipei Times, Mar. 19, 2000, lead editorial (http://www.taipeitimes.com/news),
7. The Economist, Mar. 25, 2000, p. 23.
8. See, for example, James A. Robinson, "Local Elections in Taiwan, 1993-94," Political Chronicle, Winter/ Spring 1994-95, pp. 1-9;
9. "Provincial, Metropolitan, and Recall Elections in Taiwan, 1994," Political Chronicle, ibid., Spring/Summer 1996, pp. 27-34;
10. "Taiwan's 1995 Legislative Yuan Elections," American Asian Review, Fall 1996, pp. 107-130;
11. "Taiwan's 1996 National Assembly and Presidential Elections," American Asian Review, ibid., Spring 1998, pp. 1-34;
12. Eric P. Moon and James A. Robinson, "Taiwan's 1997 Local Elections," American Journal of Chinese Studies, Apr. 1998, pp. 131-46;
13. Deborah A. Brown, Eric P. Moon, and James A. Robinson, "Taiwan's 1998 Local Elections," Asian Survey, June 1998, pp. 569-84;
14. Eric P. Moon, "Taiwan's 1998 Township Council and Neighbourhood Chief Elections," China Perspectives, Sept./Oct. 1998, pp. 22-29;
15. Deborah A. Brown, Eric P. Moon, and James A. Robinson, "Taiwan's 1998 Legislative and Metropolitan Elections," China Perspectives, ibid., Jan./Feb. 1999, pp. 29-37.
16. Hung-mao Tien and Tun-jen Cheng, "Crafting Democratic Institutions in Taiwan," The China Journal, Jan. 1997, pp. 1-30.
17. Yun-han Chu and Larry Diamond, "Taiwan's 1998 Elections: Implications for Democratic Consolidation," Asian Survey, Sept./Oct. 1999, pp. 808-22.
18. "Scandals, Lawsuits and Close Polls for Taiwan Presidential Election," Agence France-Presse (http://taiwan security.org/AFP/AFP-021800-Campaign.htm).
19. William H. Riker, The Strategy of Rhetoric (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1996).
20. Warren E. Miller and J. Merrill Shanks, The New American Voter (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1996).
21. Ronald Inglehart, Modernization and Postmodernization: Cultural, Economic, and Political Change in 43 Societies (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1997).
22. We have depended more or less explicitly for standards of appraisal on Robert A. Dahl's conceptions of criteria of democracy and of institutions and practices that meet those criteria. See Robert A. Dahl, Democracy and Its Critics and On Democracy (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1989 and 1998, respectively).
23. See James A. Robinson and Deborah A. Brown, "Taiwan's 'Black Gold Politics,'" Asian Wall Street Journal, Mar. 17-18, 2000. "Black" refers to the KMT's association with mobsters; "gold" refers to the perceived favoritism of the government toward KMT-linked businesses.
24. See Julian Baum with Dan Biers, "When a Giant Falls," Far Eastern Economic Review, Apr. 16, 2000, p. 19.
25. The best introduction to this topic may be found in several reports by Julian Baum: "The Money Machine," Far Eastern Economic Review, Aug. 11, 1994, pp. 62-67;
26. "Political Minefield," Far Eastern Economic Review, ibid., Feb. 3, 2000, pp. 22-24;
27. with Dan Biers, "The New-Look KMT Inc.,Far Eastern Economic Review, " ibid., Mar. 9, 2000, pp. 42-45.
28. Also note Allen T. Cherry, "The Curse of 'Black Gold,'" Asiaweek, Mar. 17, 2000, pp. 24-25.
29. See also (in Chinese) Shih-Meng S. Chen et al., Disintegrating KMT-State Capitalism: A Closer Look at Privatizing Taiwan's State and Party-Owned Enterprises (Taipei: Taipei Society, 1991);
30. Liang Yung-huang and Tien Hsi-ru, Liquidating the Kuomintang (Taipei: Wealth Publishing, 2000).
31. Otake Hider, ed., How Electoral Reforms Boomeranged: Continuity in Japanese Campaigning Style (Tokyo: Japan Center for International Exchange, 1998).
32. "KMT Candidate Gets Most Favorable TV Coverage," Central News Agency, Mar. 4, 2000;
33. "State TV Stations Want the KMT to Back Off," editorial, Taipei Times, Mar. 23, 2000 (http://www.taipeitimes.com/news);
34. "Media Biased in Reporting Election News: Opinion Survey," Central News Agency, Mar. 25, 2000.
35. The full text of the white paper, "The One-China Principle and the Taiwan Issue," may be found in, among other references, China Daily, Feb. 22, 2000, and online (http://www.peopledaily.com.cn/english/features/ taiwanpaper/taiwan.html).
36. See, for example, the polls conducted regularly for the Mainland Affairs Council by four polling firms or centers, available in Chinese and English from the Council Offices in the Executive Yuan, Taipei (http:// www.mac.gov.tw/pos/).
37. The chairman of the DPP, Lin Yi-hsiung, reiterated a point made by Peng Ming-min, the party's presidential candidate in 1996, that Taiwan could develop closer ties with China than with any other country, if China's leaders only would allow it. "'No' to China but 'Yes' to Common Market," Straits Times Interactive (Singapore), Nov. 7, 1999 (http://straitstimes.asial.com.sg/).
38. See National Policy Committee and National Security Subcommittee, "China Policy White Paper," Democratic Progressive Party, Nov. 1999, p. 3.
39. China Policy White Paper, Ibid., p. 7.
40. The origins of the idea of dual tracks in diplomacy are traced in and the idea applied to Taiwan-China affairs by Ralph N. Clough, Reaching Across the Taiwan Strait: People to People Diplomacy (Boulder, Colo.: Westview Press, 1993).
41. "China Policy White Paper," pp. 8-9.
42. China Policy White Paper Ibid., pp. 14-15.
43. China Policy White Paper Ibid., p. 5. This point was reiterated in the authors' interview with Bi-Khim Hsiao, director, DPP Department of International Affairs, Mar. 2000.
44. "China Policy White Paper," pp. 11, 13.