A Study On Mainland Policy Of Democratic Progressive Party At The Present Stage

Since May2008, Cross-Strait relations have entered a new stage of peaceful development, but Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) is still a significant variable which affects the peaceful development of Cross-Strait relations. Whether DPP adjusts or even gives up its advocacy of "Taiwan independence", is not only closely related to the well-being of compatriots on both sides, but also relevant to further consolidation and deepening of "Cross-Strait peaceful development". The framework of this dissertation adopts the theory of political system of David Easton. The purpose of this dissertation is to give a comprehensive description of the Mainland Policies of DPP since2008, from three aspects of inputs, conversions and outputs; to clarify the factors that affect the policy outcomes; and to make a reasonable prediction of its future trend.Before the year of2008, the Mainland policies of DPP have gone through three stages of development, with distinguishing characteristics of upgrade, pragmatic, and radical. During the course of evolution, the advocacy of "Taiwan independence" has become the ideology of DPP, which proves to be an increasing obstacle to adjustment of its Mainland policies.This research explores two basic kinds of inputs:demands and supports, which can be classified into three levels of analysis, which are international, Cross-Strait, and Taiwan’s internal level. From the perspective of demands, the common requirement of three levels of factors is "stable", which means that the Mainland policies of DPP should not create tension in the Taiwan Strait, and should maintain the stability of the Cross-Strait. From the perspective of supports, the support of the United States depends on which party’s policies are more consistent with its national interests; the support of Mainland China belongs to the category of "negative support"; supporters who express "high-level and affirmative" support for DPP in Taiwan are in the decline.This research explores two basic mechanisms of conversions:structural mechanism and cultural mechanism. From the perspective of structural mechanism, the formal structure of DPP only plays the role of policy legalization. It’s the informal structure of DPP that plays the role of interest aggregation, and the informal structure is the factions of DPP. The positive influences of factions are keeping the route of DPP in the middle, and the power will not be too concentrated. The negative influences of factions are that the policy-making tends to reach a deadlock, and the whole party is slow to respond to the environment. From the perspective of cultural mechanism, the characteristic of cognitive orientation of DPP is the narrowness of "Taiwan consciousness"; the characteristic of affective orientation of DPP is the consciousness of sad feeling to Mainland China, pro-US and pro-Japan; the characteristic of evaluational orientation is populism. The influences of political culture of DPP on its Mainland policies are the distortion of the inputs at the international, Cross-Strait, and Taiwan internal level.This research explores two basic kinds of outputs:authoritative decisions and authoritative implementing actions. From the perspective of authoritative decisions, DPP still insists on its advocacy of "Taiwan Independence", but has made some tactical changes. From the perspective of authoritative implementing actions, its activities follow the laws of the opposition parties, and can be divided into four categories:street movement, initiation of "referendum", obstruction of the proceedings of "Legislative Yuan", and preparation for elections. The characteristics of Mainland policies of DPP at the present stage are the concealment of the advocacy of "Taiwan Independence", the time lag of policies, and the strong personal style.Through research, this dissertation argues that there is a huge gap between the inputs and outputs of the Mainland policies of DPP. The inputs require DPP to make fundamental change to its Mainland policies, yet the outputs reveal that the essence of its policies remains unchanged. The main cause of the gap lies in structural mechanism and cultural mechanism. Under the influence of political culture of DPP, the original inputs are largely distorted as they flow through the channels of the conversion process. Coupled with the negative effects of the factions of the structural level, the adjustments of Mainland policies of DPP is not feasible. Based on the inherent logic of the evolution of its policies and the fact that internal conditions are not satisfied, there is a faint possibility that Mainland policies of DPP might have fundamental changes in the near future. Yet based on two external trends which are the trend of Cross-Strait relations and the trend of the development of political parties, it is a general trend that DPP will adjust or even give up its advocacy of "Taiwan Independence" in the long run.