A COMPARISON OF THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS
IN THE UNITED STATES AND TAIWAN IN 2000.
The election in Taiwan in March 2000 was significant because it involved the first time in the history of the Republic of China that power had changed from the traditional ruling party, the Kuomintang or KMT, to another party, the Democratic Progressive Party, which had very different policies for the governing of the nation and its relations with mainland China and the rest of the world. Examining the change of power between the Clinton Administration and the coming Bush Administration as a result of Campaign 2000 may reveal some interesting information regarding the role of media and the changeover between parties.
In examining these two different yet similar elections, it is important to understand the nature of the two-party system, which involves the peaceful handing-over of power between groups who may have diametrically-opposed views of the current situation and policies to deal with it. The United States has the most experience with this phenomenon, therefore brief history is necessary to deal with this.
Prior to the election of 1840, America did not have a two-party political system. Federalists and Democratic-Republicans contested elections in the early republic, but they were more representations of class and regional power than political parties. From 1812 to 1824, during the "era of good feelings,"
there was only one political party, and Presidents James Madison and James Monroe ran virtually unopposed. (Shulman, M1)
After a 4-year interregnum in which Andrew Jackson - the man who won the most electoral votes in the election of 1824 - was denied his victory in the House of Representatives in favor of John Quincy Adams, Jacksonian Democracy - a further development of the political tendencies of the "era of good feelings" - took hold in 1828 and ran full throated to 1840. In 1840, the Whig candidate, William Henry ...