The Research Of The Variety In Terms Of Social Foundation And Political Status For The Democratic Progressive Party Of Taiwan

Sun Yat-sen,Father of the Nation,founded the Society for Regenerating China(兴中会)as a platform for revolutionary activities.Later,the Society was turned into the Revolutionary Alliance(同盟会),the Chinese Nationalist Party/KMT(国民党),and the Chinese Revolutionary Party(中华革命党)which were all dedicated to the overthrow of the Qing Dynasty.Among them,the early KMT had founded the Republic of China and came into power.In 1946,the Constitution of the Republic of China had been drawn up.At that time,the domestic parties were the Chinese Communist Party(中国共产党),the Chinese Youth Party(中国青年党),the China Democratic Alliance(中国民主同盟),and the Chinese Liberal Democratic Party,which was renamed after the merger of the Chinese Nationalist Society Party (中国国家社会党)and the Chinese Democratic Constitutional Party(中国民主社会党).October 1 in 1949,the Chinese Communist Party announced the establishment of the Central Government of the People's Republic of China(中华人民共和国中央政府)in the Tiananmen Square in Beijing.In the territory of China,once again the political power was transferred and the Chinese Communist Party became the ruling party legally.Nowadays in China there are eight political parties in the country ruled by the Chinese Communist Party.the Revolutionary Committee of Chinese Kuomintang(中国国民党革命委员会),the China Democratic Alliance(中国民主同盟),the China Democratic National Construction Association(中国民主建国会),the China Association for Promoting Democracy(中国民主促进会),the Chinese Peasants and Workers Democratic Party(中国农工民主党),the Jiuer Society (九二学社),the China Public Interest Party(中国致公党),and the Taiwan Democratic Self-government League(台湾民主自治同盟).Based on the cooperative system among the Chinse Communist Party and other plural Parties,the country has embarked on a broad road with hope to the destination of freedom,democracy and prosperity.However,in 1950,the KMT declared the Martial Law and Taiwan entered the Period of National Mobilization for Suppression of the Communist Rebellion.The Chinese Youth Party and the Chiese Liberal Democratic Party had followed the KMT to Taiwan,which made the number of political parties add up to three in Taiwan.On September 28 in 1986,the formal establishment of the Democratic Progressive Party,originated by more than one hundred and thirty public figures,was announced in the Grand Hotel in Taipei and Taiwan was still under the Martial Law then.In January of 1989,the Legislative Yuan amended the Civil Organizations Act of the Period of National Mobilization for Suppression of the Communist Rebellion,adding the chapter of "Political Groups" and proclaiming the important conditions for forming political parties and groups.From then on,people in Taiwan had a legal basis to form political parties.As of October of 2006,in Taiwan there are one hundred and twenty political parties and forty one political groups which had gained the permission of the Ministry of the Interior legally. During the development of the Democratic Progressive Party,it has claimed "honesty", "democracy",and "localization" as its core values to engage in political mobilization.Nevertheless, the development course of party affairs for the last twenty years had shown an entirely different result from the ethics claimed by the DPP.The core values of the DPP have been diminished and dissimilated due to faction conflicts,administrative position takings,and imbalanced distribution of political interests. The democratic pursuit of the DPP has been widely separated from the ultimate value of democracy.In the early period,the DPP mainly sought to oppose the autocratic ruling of the KMT and wanted to change the marginal status of the "native Taiwanese" in the system of power distribution.Therefore,its democratic request still had the meaning of overall concern at that time.However,the situation changed drastically after the DPP had taken office in 2000.The DPP,with power in its grip,did not turn its "value of democracy" into the "practice of democracy".It did not realize the commitment of looking after "people".On the contrary,the DPP utilized "democracy" to safeguard its political autonomy.The latest corruption scandal of the president Chen Shui-bian was a typical case in point. People had asked the president to resign due to the disgrace of corruption,but Chen refused to step down. He said that "A-bian is the president elected by more than half of the people in Taiwan" and utilized this as an excuse to rebut the request of resignation.Before 2000,the DPP had exerted all possible efforts in promoting "political honesty".Never being a ruling party before,it boasted of its honest image to voters and the KMT.In the presidential election of 2000,the DPP even utilized the "anti-black gold" issue as its main theme in the campaign,trying to make its image of honesty and reform stand out to contrast with the conservative and corruptive impression of the KMT.Nevertheless,only within a few years after the DPP took office,the Chen administration was "black-goldized" and the corruption problem got even worse than that of the KMT ruling period.The astounding amount of money involving in the latest scandal showed that the DPP s credit of "honesty" had gone bankrupt.The constraint force of morals had all gone in dishonor involving Chen,his wife,accountant,doctor,lawyer and two secretaries.On the other hand,the other two core values "democracy" and "localization" have intertwined and manifested through dissimilation.The DPP has always considered itself as a "local political party" and the mobilization of ethnic groups and fellow villagers and townsmen has been one of its main political strategies.In order to achieve the goal of winning the election,the DPP had split the Taiwanese society and drawn a clear line of demarcation between the people in Mainland China and Taiwan,enlarging the ethnic differences,provoking conflicts between mainlanders and native Taiwanese, separating different groups such as Hakka and aborigines,and arousing the resistance of workers and farmers.It had continually provoked confrontation of ethnic groups.As a result,the value of localization had been replaced by the narrow ethnic awareness,becoming a tool of attacking those who hold different views.The diminished core values of the DPP had helped the forming of the screening mechanism.A group of people who insisted the importance of basic values,such as Hsu Hsin-liang,Shih Ming-de,and Lin Yi-hsiung,left the DPP one after another,It implied that the DPP has faced a problem of corruption and its democratic vales had already deviated from its original object.This trend instead had accelerated the speed of diminishing the core values of the DPP.The situation of joint rule by party factions was formed due to the political ecosystem of the DPP.When the DPP was first established,it was only a group of people with different political points of views opposing the rule of the KMT.However,even these points of views all belong to the same political thought;they would also lead to dispute over different lines.Moreover,since the dangwai(outside the KMT)period,the inner political power of the DPP has evolved into various factions and it needed a buffer to absorb conflicts.Therefore,the structure of joint rule by party factions came into existence and it performed the integrated function bit by bit. After being lead by the long-termed and differentiated values of the "local construction",the historical memory of the Taiwanese society has been painstakingly sifted and filtered.At the same time,after experiencing innumerable elections involving campaigns of disunion,people in Taiwan,especially pan-green voters,would not reflect on themselves regarding certain political problems.Consequently,the DPP and its loyal supporters kidnapped each other,becoming partners in crime.For the pan-green camp, Chen Shui-bian is not only a ruler but also a pioneer of local politics.He is also the political totem that the DPP has to protect beyond any political ethics.This kind of structure is the biggest obstruction for the self-reflection of the DPP and its inner adjustment of political ecosystem.Nevertheless,the DPP,only within fourteen years,utilized the democratic election system to overthrow the KMT,which ruled Taiwan for fifty years,and took office with majority of votes in 2000.It also transferred the power peacefully under the system of political neutrality which separates soldiers,the police,and the military.Therefore,its process of growth and power formation can not be neglected and is worth studying with a solemn attitude so as to serve as an important milestone for the development and evolution of party politics.This dissertation focuses on the DPP s development,discussing its initial period,opposition party period,and ruling period as well as the possibility of becoming the opposition party again.It compares the factions in the DPP,outside-the-party relationship,and the social context with other parties and also discusses the history of the DPP from engaging in street campaigns,running for elections,ruling the local governments,and to becoming the ruling party.The future trend of the DPP,the democratic issue of Taiwan,and the international status are all discussed.The topic of whether the cross-strait relationship will be affected due to the DPP s local position and the awareness of Taiwan independence is also probed.It also utilizes real political cases as the materials for conducting research,obtaining information through investigation and interviews,so as to analyze and discuss the current situations of political development.