Last Thursday was the registration deadline for candidates running in the fifth legislative election. Now, the battle has commenced.
Competition is fierce and the results of this election will have a profound influence on the future of politics in Taiwan. The public approval ratings for the legislature have been poor. Since the National Assembly was frozen, many people have viewed the legislature as the prime source of domestic political chaos. A public opinion poll has revealed an astounding 76 percent of the public is dissatisfied with the legislature's performance -- in contrast to a mere 10 percent who are satisfied.
Another survey showed the profession of legislator to be the profession with the worst public image, 72 percent of respondents having an unfavorable impression of lawmakers.
The bizarre thing is that even though the public has generally been dissatisfied with the legislature's overall performance, high proportions of sitting legislators still manage to win second terms. Currently the Legislative Yuan has only a 10 percent public approval rating, a vast majority of incumbent lawmakers, especially some highly controversial ones -- are still likely to get re-elected by large margins in the Dec. 1 election. What should we make of this?
One possible cause is that many voters value the services provided by lawmakers in their constituencies, more than they do those lawmakers' performances in the legislature. Many legislators therefore attach more importance to attending weddings and funerals than to attending interpellation sessions. In addition, many lawmakers often use various types of pork barrel legislation or request increased local construction funds to benefit their constituencies and further consolidate their voter bases by providing solid services to their constituents.
The vast majority of lawmakers know very well that the most important political capital comes from spending time with their supporters and providing services to voters. On top of this, Taiwan society attaches considerable importance to personal networks.
The representatives also enjoy a strong "incumbency advantage" from small-scale construction funds, influence-peddling and various other types of voter services -- both legal and illegal.
It is not said as a joke in Taiwan that a legislator who seldom appears at the legislature and is not known recognized by security guards and reporters, can still get re-elected.
Even though the general public will eventually have to pay for whatever pork barrel benefits they receive, voters who directly benefit from such legalized graft still support the re-election of their incumbent representatives, even as they criticize the legislature's poor overall performance.
Another important factor is the electoral system itself. Taiwan uses an odd "single, non-transferrable vote, in a multi-member district" electoral system for its legislative elections. The system aggravates the contradiction between public approval ratings for collective and individual performance. In a multi-member district system, candidates can be re-elected with support from a small, specific group of voters. They neither need nor want to seek sympathy from the "majority" of voters in the constituency. Some lawmakers therefore use whatever extreme methods they can to win benefits for -- and identification from -- small, specific groups of voters. They might advocate some extreme ideology, pursue special benefits for some voters, forcibly secure votes through local political factions with links to organized crime and employ many other antics to target specific voters. That's how they win re-election by large margins.
How can a legislator whose political performance is highly suspect, still be re-elected even though he or she has been abandoned by a majority of voters? Because he only needs to win support from a small, specific group of voters. The large group of voters who dislike him isn't the support he seeks. Since he doesn't need your vote, what can you do to him or her?
The legislature's poor performance can be traced to defects in the country's political culture and flaws in the design of its political system. We expect gradually to change the electoral culture through citizen education and by calling on voters to select only the good and capable for public office. Furthermore, we need reforms in our electoral system to restore public confidence in representative democracy.
Wang Yeh-lih is a professor of political science at Tunghai University.
Translated by Francis Huang and Jackie Lin
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