Abstract
This chapter asks that given Taiwan’s current socioeconomic situation and electoral system, will the newly emerged New Power Party (NPP) become one of the main political parties in Taiwan in the upcoming future? We answer the question by identifying electoral, ideological, supportive, and organizational factors. The findings show that, first, the current electoral system seems unfavorable for a small party like NPP who rely on more radical stances; second, the NPP’s ideological positions may be adverse to increase its voters’ base; third, the NPP’s ambition of becoming a left-wing political party does not seem to correspond well with current supporters; and fourth, the party’s centralized, top-down communicative manner can be detrimental to its popularity among the new internet generation.
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- 1.
The data and result can be accessed at http://esc.nccu.edu.tw/course/news.php?Sn=165.
- 2.
A survey project, “Civil Awareness and Multiple Value (2016),” showed that among people under forty, 58.6 percent supported the DPP; 21.1 percent supported the NPP; and 20.3 percent supported the KMT.
- 3.
Such an aim was claimed by the NPP in their internal seminar.
- 4.
Please refer to the NPP’s basic principal in their official website, which can be accessed at https://www.newpowerparty.tw/pages/%E5%9F%BA%E6%9C%AC%E4%B8%BB%E5%BC%B5.
- 5.
The Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) is a pro-Taiwan independencepolitical party in Taiwan. It was founded on August 12, 2001. The party was relatively popular during the early 2000s as it had successfully secured 8.5 percent and 8.3 percent of votes as well as thirteen and twelve seats, respectively, during the legislative elections in 2001 and 2004. However, the party only received 2.5 percent of votes and no seats in the 2016 legislative election.
- 6.
See note 4.
- 7.
iVoter is Taiwan’s first voting advice application that was introduced in 2010. Until 2016, 1400 people had completed issue position diagnostic registration. For more information, please visit the website ivoter.tw or see Liao and Chen (2016).
- 8.
The project title is “Taiwan’s Election and Democratization Study, 2016–2020(IV): Telephone Interview of the Presidential and Legislative Elections, 2016(TEDS2016-T).” It can be accessed at http://teds.nccu.edu.tw/intro2/super_pages.php?ID=intro11&Sn=117.
- 9.
See note 1.
- 10.
The figure is produced by Dachi Liao’s iVoter project, which can be accessed at http://ivoter.tw/.
- 11.
The question was, “from 0 to 10 (0: dislike very much; 10: like very much), how much will you rate Li-Luan Chu and Ing-Wen Tsai?”
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Chen, I.Ty., Liao, Dc. (2019). The Rise of the New Power Party in Taiwan’s 2016 Legislative Election: Reality and Challenges. In: Lee, Wc. (eds) Taiwan’s Political Re-Alignment and Diplomatic Challenges. Politics and Development of Contemporary China. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-77125-0_4
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