Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: In this paper I develop a theory explaining the variation in successor party performance following the collapse of single-party authoritarianism in 28 countries. I argue that there are three sets of factors affecting successor party performance in competitive elections – historical legacies, political institutions, and party adaptation tactics to democratic conditions. My preliminary results on a partial data set indicate that party tactics such as name changes, organizational centralization, and ideological moderation improve successor parties’ electoral performance.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: As the Berlin Wall fell, the number of governments run by Marxist-Leninist doctrines has also declined rapidly. Vietnam is one of the five remaining Communist countries in the world. Instead of committing herself to advance the interests of the proletariat worldwide, Vietnam is scurrying toward capitalism and develops some version of nationalism to spice up the fading Communist ideology. This research focuses on the question of whether the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV) has begun to moderate its ideological position in reaction to the collapse of Communism in Eastern Europe through an analysis of the latest CPV’s program, using the coding scheme from the Comparative Manifesto Research Project (CMRP). The analysis of the CPV program tends to confirm the survival strategy of single-party programs; that is, they have to satisfy both the elitist and mass demand in coping with changes within society and trends in international relations. However, insofar as there are no parties to compete, the CPV may monopolize power and remain quite independent from competitive pressure. The leaders of the CPV have more policy room to manipulate and achieve what they want to accomplish in an authoritarian system, whereas countries with a multi-party system may not do so easily because of inter-party pressure. The result also indicates strong nationalist sentiment under which Communism was able to hide itself by claiming legitimacy for the Party’s continuous rule. Although the CPV pays lip-service to the socialist orientation throughout its program, the concept is without substance. Facing the inevitable trend of globalization, the CPV is trying to catch up with the capitalist neighbors like Singapore and Thailand by advertising Vietnamese products, people, and country on the global market. In so doing, the CPV is abandoning its socialist content and saying farewell to the proletarian struggle worldwide. Any existing tensions between market economy and central planning will eventually be resolved, perhaps, in favor of the market as evident in the promotion of competition and free market in the program’s text.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: This paper examines the bargaining between factions in a single-party majority government, which under some circumstances results in the party’s split. It treats party unity as an outcome of the bargaining process rather than an assumption.

Publication Type: Proceeding
Abstract: Drawing on the game-theoretical dominant player concept and power indices, this paper introduces a re-conceptualization of single-party dominance that we consider to be more intuitive and less dependent on ad hoc criteria than standard operationalizations of the phenomenon. This operational definition is then used in the presentation of a few descriptive inferences on the incidence and nature of single-party dominance in the subnational jurisdictions of four federally organized parliamentary democracies, namely, Canada, Australia, Germany and Austria. The paper also reviews extant hypotheses on the rise and fall of dominant party regimes and discusses their plausability against the backdrop of our cases. We conclude that there are few, if any, individually necessary or sufficient causes of single-party dominance. Instead, nationally and perhaps even regionally specific configurations of factors seem to account for the rise and fall of dominant party regimes - a finding that underlines the necessity of further multi-method research on the topic.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: This paper investigates how party organization might enhance the durability of a single-paper regime overtime. Drawing from Angelo Panebianco’s organizational theory, it argues that extent of party institutionalization influences the internal cohesion and stability of a party. Based on an in-depth study of the Kuomintang Party (KMT)’s party organization and recruitment patterns in Taiwan, this paper explains how an authoritarian-hegemonic regime under Chiang Ching-Kuo (1975-1986) transformed into a predominant party regime under Lee Teng-hui (1986-2000) and eventually gave way to competitive, liberal democratic regime in 2000.