Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-mlc7c Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-13T03:30:41.007Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Impact of Candidate Selection Systems on Election Results: Evidence from Taiwan before and after the Change in Electoral Systems

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 January 2013

Dafydd Fell
Dafydd Fell*
Affiliation:
SOAS, University of London. Email: df2@soas.ac.uk.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

A central challenge for scholars of party politics is to explain parties' electoral success or failure. Campaign strategies, candidate personalities, electoral systems, parties' issue emphasis and policy positions all receive extensive coverage in the literature. One variable that has been neglected is the role of nomination systems in election results. This is surprising considering how politicians often blame candidate selection failures for disappointing electoral outcomes and then reform nomination mechanisms in the hope of improving future election prospects. In this study I examine the relationship between nomination systems and electoral results in Taiwan before and after the change in electoral systems. I show that candidate selection methods have played an important role in shaping Taiwan's party system under the old and new electoral systems.

Keywords

candidate selectionnominationTaiwanelectionspolitical parties
Type
Articles
Information
The China Quarterly , Volume 213 , March 2013 , pp. 152 - 171
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.)

References

Bille, Lars. 2001. “Democratizing a democratic procedure: myth or reality? Candidate selection in Western European parties: 1960–1990.” Party Politics 7 (3), 363–380.Google Scholar
Cross, William. 2008. “Democratic norms and party candidate selection: taking contextual factors into account.” Party Politics 14 (5), 596–619.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dickson, Bruce. 1993. “Lessons of defeat: the reorganization of the Kuomintang on Taiwan, 1950–1952.” The China Quarterly 133, 56–84.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fan, Zhengxiang. 2008. “Party reform group grasps root of sickness: DPP has 7 major problems,” Liberty Times, 2 April.Google Scholar
Fell, Dafydd. 2005. Party Politics in Taiwan. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Fell, Dafydd. 2006. “Inner party democracy in Taiwan.” Journal of Electoral Studies 13 (2), 167–198.Google Scholar
Fell, Dafydd. 2008. “Party competition in Taiwan: towards a new party system?” In Goldstein, Steven and Chang, Julian (eds.), Presidential Politics in Taiwan: The Administration of Chen Shui-bian. Norwalk, Conn: EastBridge, 49–84.Google Scholar
Field, Bonnie, and Siavelis, Peter. 2008. “Candidate selection procedures in transitional polities: a research note.” Party Politics 14 (5), 620–639.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gallagher, Michael. 1988. “Introduction.” In Gallagher, Michael and Marsh, Michael (eds.), Candidate Selection in Comparative Perspective: The Secret Garden of Politics. London: Sage, 1–19.Google Scholar
Hazan, Reuvan, and Rahat, Gideon. 2006. “Candidate selection: methods and consequences.” In Katz, Richard and Crotty, William (eds.), Handbook of Party Politics. London: Sage, 109–121.Google Scholar
Hsieh, John. 1996. “The SNTV system and its political implications.” In Tien, Hung-mao (ed.), Taiwan's Electoral Politics and Democratic Transition. Armonk: ME Sharpe, 193–212.Google Scholar
Katz, Richard. 2001. “The Problem of candidate selection and models of party democracy.” Party Politics 7 (3), 277–296.Google Scholar
Ko, Shu-ling. 2005. “Ma gallops to victory over Wang,” Taipei Times, 17 July, 1.Google Scholar
Ko, Shu-ling. 2008. “DPP drops blue excluding poll,” Taipei Times, 24 April, 3.Google Scholar
Lin, Zhengzhong. 2008. “Minjindang qianghua timingquan: zhengzhao qudai chuxuan beipi zouhuitoulu” (“DPP strengthens nomination power: appointment replaces primaries, criticized for going backwards”), Lianhebao, 10 July, A4.Google Scholar
Lundell, Krister. 2004. “Determinants of candidate selection: the degree of centralization in comparative perspective.” Party Politics 10 (1), 25–47.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Maisal, Louis Sandy, and Stone, Walter. 2001. “Primary elections as a deterrent to candidacy for the US House of Representatives.” In Galderisi, Peter, Ezra, Marni and Lyons, Michael (eds.), Congressional Primaries and the Politics of Representation. Lanham: Rowman and Littlefield, 29–47.Google Scholar
Norris, Pippa, and Lovenduski, Joni. 1995. Political Recruitment: Gender, Race and Class in the British Parliament. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Patterson, Dennis, and Stockton, Hans. 2010. “Strategies, institutions and outcomes under SNTV in Taiwan, 1992–2004.” Journal of East Asian Studies 10 (1), 31–59.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pesonen, Pertti. 1968. An Election in Finland. New Haven: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Rahat, Gideon. 2009. “Which candidate selection method is the most democratic?” Government and Opposition 44 (1), 68–90.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rahat, Gideon, and Hazan, Reuven. 2001. “Candidate selection methods: an analytical framework.” Party Politics 7 (3), 297–322.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ranney, Austin. 1981. “Candidate selection.” In Butler, D., Penniman, H. and Ranney, A. (eds.), Democracy at the Polls. Washington, DC: American Enterprise Institute, 75–106.Google Scholar
Rigger, Shelley. 1999. Politics in Taiwan. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Scarrow, Susan. 1996. Parties and their Members: Organizing for Victory in Britain and Germany. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Schaferrer, Christian. 2003. The Power of the Ballot Box. Lanham: Lexington.Google Scholar
Shih, Hsiu-chuang. 2008. “Chang urges old guard to make way for new DPP,” Taipei Times, 13 April, 3.Google Scholar
Stockton, Hans. 2010. “How rules matter: electoral reform in Taiwan.” Social Science Quarterly 91 (1), 21–41.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
TVBS Poll Center. 2003. “Reputations of 10 Taiwanese Major Political Figures,” 28–29 July, http://www.tvbs.com.tw/FILE_db/files/yijung/200407/yijung-2004731201148.pdf. Accessed 13 May 2010.Google Scholar
Wang, Liangxin. 2007. “Minjindang pailan mindiao Lin Shoushan tongpi” (“Lin Shou-shan attacks the DPP's Remove the Blues Survey”), Lianhebao, 6 April, C1 Yunlin.Google Scholar
Wang, Yeh-li. 2006. Bijiao xuanju zhidu (Comparative Electoral Systems). Taipei: Wunan.Google Scholar
Wu, Chung-li. 2001. “The transformation of the Kuomintang's candidate selection system.” Party Politics 7 (1), 103–118.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wu, Chung-li, and Fell, Dafydd. 2001. “Taiwan's party primaries in comparative perspective.” Japanese Journal of Political Science 2 (1), 23–45.Google Scholar
Yu, Ching-hsin. 2005. “The evolving party system in Taiwan: 1995–2004.” Journal of Asian and African Studies 40 (1/2), 105–123.Google Scholar