Why the Blue-Green Deadlock?
Professor Wu attributes the deadlock to three main factors: Split government. Since 2008, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), led by President Chen Shui-bian, has controlled the presidency and executive power, while the Legislature (Lifa yuan) has been under the control of the pan-blue faction, that is the KMT (Kuomintang) and its allies. Much of the reason for this split, Professor Wu explained, is to be found in a flaw in institutional design: Taiwan’s semi-presidential system. Under this system the legislative branch has few tools to influence the policy and budgetary initiatives of the executive, and the executive has few tools to counter legislative inaction or assertiveness. Social basis of partisanship. Since the presidential election of 2000, in which the green Democratic Progressive Party emerged victorious, the pan-blue faction “has kept mobilizing its civil society (ethnic Mainlanders plus anti-Independence or anti-Taiwanization supporters). Correspondingly, pan-green ha
