The New Tide
Faction (NTF) of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) has been a faction that has strong
political influence on Taiwan’s politics. This paper uses the concept of “political influence” to examine NTF from three aspects. First, NTF has always been regarded as influential in elections. However, questions arise recently on how real this
Influence is. Second, although NTF has strong influence within the DPP in terms of party platform setting, decision making, personnel arrangement, and regime changes, such influence is on the decline. This is manifested by its inability to sway Mr Chen Shuibian on a number of major policy issues. It is also demonstrated by the fact that NTF is increasingly on the defensive and being isolated by other factions of the DPP. Finally, NTF’s influence on political mobilization is significantly weakened due largely to its detachment from the working masses. In summary, while NTF has certain political influence on Taiwan’s authorities and society, one should not overestimate such influence and neglect the constraints it is facing. Promoting Taiwan independence has actually become the
bottleneck which limits the development of NTF’s political influence.
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