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Volume 31, No.1
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A Comparison of Voting Coalitions in the Legislative Yuan before and after Party Turnover of the Year 2000
A Comparison of Voting Coalitions in the Legislative Yuan before and after Party Turnover of the Year 2000
- Shiow-Duan Hawang
- 2004 / 05
Volume 11, No.1
pp.1-32
- 10.6612/tjes.2004.11.01.01-32
Abstract
The research questions of this paper are as follows: Does it make a difference if the executive branch and the legislative branch of the government are divided, that is, controlled by different parties? Before the 2000 presidential election, the KMT controlled both executive and legislative branches, but after the election, the DPP became the incumbent party in the executive branch while the KMT remained in control of the majority of seats in the Legislative Yuan. This paper will consider the question:
Have there been any differences in party voting patterns between these two periods? After the 2002 legislative election, the composition of the Legislative Yuan changed dramatically: the DPP became the largest party in the Legislative Yuan, the KMT got 68 seats and became the second largest party, the PFP won 46 seats, while the TSU took 13 seats. In this new situation, have there been any changes in terms of voting coalitions?
This research used all the roll-call votes of the fourth term legislature and first and second sessions of the fifth term legislature in the chamber. During the unified government period, party disciplines among different parties were looser, weaker party confrontation, and voting coalitions have been varied among different types of legislation. While during the period of divided government, the pan-green (DPP and TSU) and pan blue (KMT and PFP) have been strongly against each other. There is virtually no room for other types of coalition. This confrontation continues even after the first session of the fifth term legislature, when the DPP became the largest party in the Legislative Yuan. Not only have the party votes increased, but also the intra-party cohesion has increased. It is very difficult for the incumbent DPP to seek support from opposition parties in different policy domains. Thus, the DPP has had to persuade some independent lawmakers or some members of certain factions to support its important legislation, but in this case the cost has been very high.