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Democratic Progressive Party
The Democratic Progressive Party
民主進步黨, formed on September 28, 1986, had nearly 400,000 members as of June 2001. The party's organizational structure closely resembles that of the Kuomintang. The DPP's National Congress elects 31 members to the Central Executive Committee
中央執行委員會
and 11 members to the Central Review Committee
中央評議委員會. The Central Executive Committee, in turn, elects the 11 members of the Central Standing Committee
中央常務執行委員會. The members of these committees all serve two-year terms.
Previously, the National Congress elected the party chairman. The second plenary meeting of the seventh National Congress, held in September 1997, adopted a provision that the chairman be directly elected by party members. Current Chairman Frank Hsieh
謝長廷
was elected in July 2000, following the DPP's victory in the March 2000 presidential election. The chairman appoints a secretary-general, one to two deputy secretaries-general, and a number of department directors. Wu Nai-jen
吳乃仁
is the current secretary-general of the DPP.
The nominating process for DPP candidates has been changed quite frequently. At the party's Sixth National Congress, held in April and May of 1994, a two-tier primary system was initiated in which ordinary members of the DPP voted for candidates in one primary election and party cadres voted in a second primary. The results of the two elections were combined, with equal weight given to each.
At the second plenary meeting of the Sixth National Congress held in March 1995, the nomination process for the presidential and gubernatorial candidates was modified to add open primaries for DPP members and nonmembers alike. It was also decided that candidate slots on the party's list of national constituency representatives for the Legislative Yuan and National Assembly would be allocated equally among three groups: scholars and experts, representatives of disadvantaged groups, and politicians.
At the Seventh National Congress held in June 1996, further changes were made to the nominating process. It was decided that the primary reserved for the party leadership would be abolished. A two-stage process, involving a closed primary for party members and an open primary for all eligible voters, with each given equal weight, would be used for the nomination of candidates for president, provincial governor, special municipality mayors, county magistrates, provincial municipality mayors, Legislative Yuan members, National Assembly members, and special municipal councilors. However, this procedure was overturned at the provisional meeting of the seventh National Congress held in December 1996. The second stage, an open primary for all eligible voters, was replaced by opinion polls. It was further decided at the meeting that the party chairman would be elected directly by all members of the party starting in 1998.
At the second meeting of the Eighth National Congress held in May 1999, a special rule was adopted for the 2000 presidential election: A qualified candidate must be recommended by more than 40 party leaders, and if there is only one such candidate, the National Congress must be convened to ratify the nomination by a three-fifths majority. At the provisional meeting of the National Congress in July, former Taipei Mayor Chen Shui-bian
陳水扁
was officially nominated to represent the DPP in the 2000 presidential election.
Perhaps what most distinguishes the DPP from the three other major parties is its tendency to Taiwan independence, or the permanent political separation of Taiwan from China. On October 13, 1991, a gathering of the DPP's National Congress adopted two resolutions that provide a good example of this. The resolutions called for setting up an independent, sovereign country named the Republic of Taiwan, and for working to join the United Nations under the name "Taiwan" rather than as the Republic of China.
The DPP's position on the issue of independence has shifted somewhat, especially when the party came closer to becoming the ruling party rather than merely a member of the opposition.
At the Eighth National Congress meetings in 1999, the DPP ratified a resolution, stipulating:
- Taiwan is a sovereign state, whose official name is the Republic of China.
- Any change of Taiwan's status quo should first require a plebiscite.
- Taiwan is not part of the People's Republic of China, and the so-called "one country, two systems" or "one China" declaration unilaterally declared by the PRC falls short of the interests of the people of Taiwan.
- Taiwan and China should seek to establish a perpetual peace by building up a communication mechanism based on mutual understanding and consensus through dialogue across the Taiwan Strait.
In more recent elections, the mainstream DPP leadership has tended to downplay the party's independence theme in an attempt to broaden voter support. This treatment of the issue, as well as the DPP's recent warming to interparty cooperation, has led to dissatisfaction among the more radical advocates of independence for Taiwan. Several of these disaffected DPP members left the party and established the Taiwan Independence Party (TAIP) and the New Nation Association with other independence supporters.
DPP's
policies (from DPP's English website)
A. On China
B. On the Economy & the Environment
C. On Foreign Affairs
D. On Women
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