Taiwan’s Green Parties: Alternative Politics in Taiwan

Much of the scholarly literature on green parties is focused on Europe. Emilie van Haute’s 2016 book, European Green Parties, compares green parties across Europe in terms of their organization and their ideology. James Dennison’s 2016 book, The Greens in British Politics, explains why the Green Party of England and Wales became the third largest party regarding vote share and membership after the 2015 general election. Fell’s book is the first book-length study of an Asian green party. The material for this book was assembled over eight years, from December 2012 to late summer 2020. Fell conducted focus groups and interviews with over fifty party candidates and members of the party executive and conducted an online survey of supporters. Fell’s book seeks to understand whether ‘theories and frameworks designed to explain European niche parties translate well to an Asian context’ (p.4).

Fell’s book is testimony to the fact that a political party can be a fascinating object of study even if it has won only a few seats. The leaders of the Green Party of Taiwan (GPT) and its splinter group, the Trees Party, have been at the forefront of Taiwan’s environmental campaigns and played a central role in the anti-nuclear movement. The GPT was the first Taiwanese party to nominate openly gay candidates and to advocate for marriage equality. Taiwan’s green parties provide an excellent case to study the links between social movements and political parties, which should interest political scientists and sociologists.

Fell makes valuable modifications to the party lifespan model, first developed by Mogens N. Pedersen, so it can apply to green parties outside of Europe that have not reached the representation threshold. Fell adds more thresholds: the threshold of competitivity, of re-election, of recovery, and the nationwide threshold. To better explain the GPT’s electoral performance, he draws upon the theoretical approaches developed in Bonnie Meguid’s 2008 book, Party Competition Among Unequals, and Jae-Jae Spoon’s 2011 book, Political Survival of Small Parties in Europe. Meguid’s theory considers the role mainstream parties can play in creating an environment conducive to the success of a niche party. In an electoral system that is not proportional where minority governments are less common, green parties often face a hostile response from the traditional major parties. Fell presents an interesting case where it is a rival small party rather than a larger one that poses a significant threat to the green party.

Spoon focuses her analysis on the agency of small parties, ‘highlighting how their strategies can affect their survival even in unfavorable institutional settings’ (p.22). Successful smaller parties know how to find the right balance between vote maximization and core party values. Fell tests these theories in the Taiwanese context to see which theory has the most explanatory power, Spoon’s or Meguid’s. Fell sides with Meguid and argues that ‘more important than party system factors is niche party agency’ (p.280). In 2020, the leadership of the GPT ran into difficulties trying to attract new supporters. The party compromised its core values and alienated much of the social movement base that the party had built up over the previous decades. Fell argues that the GPT’s disappointing electoral results were never inevitable and that better campaign strategies could have made the GPT much more successful. He provides some crucial advice to GPT activists on how the GPT could improve its electoral performance in the future. For example, the GPT needs to better manage its relationship with the dominant liberal party, the Democratic Progressive party, and with social movements. The GPT must find ways to improve organizational effectiveness and fundraising capabilities.

On the issue of Taiwan’s national identity and relations with China, the GPT has adopted a range of different strategies ‘from taking a clear pro-independence position, but not overly stressing it, to competing to be the strongest at standing up to China’ (p. 285). Fell’s advice for the GPT is to avoid the exclusive Taiwanese nationalist appeals being employed by some of its rivals, for both ethical and strategic reasons. A more inclusive, multi-cultural, and civic nationalism would be more in line with the six core values of the Global Green Charter that, according to Fell’s interviews with activists, are deeply held by many GPT members. The GPT is an active participant in meetings of both the Asia Pacific and Global Greens. Fell argues that ‘at a time when China is attempting to squeeze Taiwan’s international space at every possible opportunity, the Green’s global activism represents an important component of Taiwan’s civil society-led public diplomacy’ (p.6). Readers interested in Taiwanese politics should read this book, and anyone who wants to better appreciate the vital role smaller parties perform in a democracy.