Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-xbtfd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-10T10:07:25.515Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Charge Me if You Can: Assessing Political Biases in Vote-buying Verdicts in Democratic Taiwan (2000–2010)*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 August 2012

Chung-li Wu
Chung-li Wu*
Affiliation:
Academia Sinica. Email: polclw@gate.sinica.edu.tw
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

While the judicial system is an important part of any given political regime, other than in a few Western countries, it has received comparatively little attention. This study employs vote-buying litigation as a litmus test to inquire whether or not the judiciary in Taiwan is politically biased in its judgments. Vote buying has long marred Taiwan's elections and the general public does not seem to trust the judicial system to be independent of political influences. This study examines the impact of political variables (including partisanship, whether candidates are elected or not, and the type of election) on court decisions in vote-buying litigation between 2000 and 2010. The article looks at these decisions at three levels: district courts, high courts, and the Supreme Court. The empirical findings indicate that the effects of political factors are considerably less an influence than expected on trial outcomes.

Keywords

judicial systemcourtpolitical factorvote-buying litigationKuomintangTaiwan
Type
Articles
Information
The China Quarterly , Volume 211 , September 2012 , pp. 786 - 805
Copyright
Copyright © The China Quarterly 2012 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

*

An early version of this essay was presented at the 2010 annual meeting of the American Political Science Association, Washington DC, September 4, 2010. The author would like to thank the two anonymous referees and the editor of The China Quarterly for their constructive suggestions and guidance.

References

Bosco, Joseph. 1994. “Taiwan factions: guanxi, patronage, and the state in local politics.” In Rubinstein, Murray A. (ed.), The Other Taiwan: 1945 to the Present. Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe, 114–144.Google Scholar
Chao, Linda, and Myers, Ramon H.. 1998. The First Chinese Democracy: Political Life in the Republic of China on Taiwan. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cheng, Tun-jen. 1989. “Democratizing the quasi-Leninist regime in Taiwan.” World Politics 41 (4): 471–499.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cheng, Tun-jen, and Haggard, Stephan (eds.). 1992. Political Change in Taiwan. Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fienberg, Stephen E. 1980. The Analysis of Cross-Classified Categorical Data. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.Google Scholar
Gordon, Sanford C. 2009. “Assessing partisan bias in federal public corruption prosecutions.” American Political Science Review 103 (4): 534–551.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Helmke, Gretchen. 2002. “The logic of strategic defection: court-executive relations in Argentina under dictatorship and democracy.” American Political Science Review 96 (2): 291–303.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hsieh, John Fuh-sheng. 1996. “The SNTV system and political implications.” In Tien, Hung-mao (ed.), Taiwan's Electoral Politics and Democratic Transition: Riding the Third Wave. Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe, 193–212.Google Scholar
Jacobs, Bruce J. 1980. Local Politics in a Rural Chinese Cultural Setting: A Field Study of Mazu Township, Taiwan. Canberra: Australian National University, Contemporary China Centre.Google Scholar
Lerman, Arthur J. 1978. Taiwan's Politics: The Provincial Assemblyman's World. Washington, DC: University Press of America.Google Scholar
Linz, Juan J. 1978. The Breakdown of Democratic Regimes: Crisis, Breakdown, and Reequilibration. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.Google Scholar
McCullagh, P., and Nelder, J.A.. 1989. Generalized Linear Models. London: Chapman and Hall.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nichter, Simeon. 2008. “Vote buying or turnout buying? Machine politics and the secret ballot.” American Political Science Review 102 (1): 19–31.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Piattoni, Simona (ed.). 2001. Clientelism, Interests, and Democratic Representation: The European Experience in Historical Perspective. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Porter, Michael E., and Schwab, Klaus. 2008. The Global Competitiveness Report 2008–2009. Geneva: World Economic Forum.Google Scholar
Stokes, Susan C. 2005. “Perverse accountability: a formal model of machine politics with evidence from Argentina.” American Political Science Review 99 (3): 315–25.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tien, Hung-mao. 1989. The Great Transition: Political and Social Change in the Republic of China. Stanford: Hoover Institution Press.Google Scholar
Tocqueville, Alexis de. 1984 [1835]. Democracy in America. New York: Penguin Books.Google Scholar
Wang, Yeh-lih. 1996. “The political consequences of the electoral system: single non-transferable voting in Taiwan.” Issues & Studies 32 (8): 85–104.Google Scholar
Wu, Chung-li. 2003. “Local factions and the Kuomintang in Taiwan's electoral politics.” International Relations of the Asia-Pacific 3 (1): 89–111.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wu, Chung-li, and Huang, Chi. 2004. “Politics and judiciary verdicts on vote buying litigation in Taiwan.” Asian Survey 44 (5): 755–770.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yang, He-lun. 1995. “Xu Shui-de yuchujingren: fayuan yeshi zhizhengdangde” (“Xu Shui-de said: the courts are owned by the ruling party”). Xinxinwen 437 (July 23–27, 1995): 25.Google Scholar