An Analysis of The ROC's Party System: 1949-1992

對於遷臺以來中華民國政黨體系之分類大體上有一黨專政、一黨獨大、革命民主政黨及民主政黨政治等大四大類，但是在理論上來說，皆存有相當大的缺陷，需要政黨學者在理論上作出大的推進。中華民國政黨政治的發展與其過去四十年來的經濟、社會變遷有密不可分的關係。若以沙托瑞（Sartori）的分類法而言，一九四九至一九八六年間中華民國應屬於「具有意識形態的霸勢一黨體制」，它具備以下的特色：(1)有一強大的、有意識形態的國民黨長期執政。(2)在體系中尚存在著不具威脅的青年黨及民主社會黨。(3)私有經濟的存在被容許，且受鼓勵，并由此而引發社會變遷。(4)過去四十多年來，臺灣社會舉行了無數次的選舉，這些選舉具備不同額的、種類多且次數繁、定期舉行、非執政黨人士參與多、執政黨過去可容忍不具真正威脅之競爭及漸進的開放參與等特色。一九八六年後，政黨間的競爭逐步開放，至一九九三年，可謂“競爭”的原則已經確立。但是，中華民國未來是否會走上兩黨制抑或優勢一黨制，則尚有待未來的政治發展。There exist four “schools” of categorization of the ROC’s party systems: one party dictatorship, one party dominance, revolutionary democratic party system, and democratic party system, yet none of them are theoretically sound, which demands further development of the field. The development of the ROC’s party system is closely related to its economic and social changes in the past four decades. If one adopts Giovanni Sartori’s typology, the ROC of 1949 to 1986 falls into the category of hegemonic one party system which is characterized with (1) a powerful, ideological party, the Kuomintang, has seen in power for a long period of time, (2) the existence of two non-threatening parties, the Youth Party and the Democratic Socialist Party, (3) the existence of private ownership is permitted and even encouraged which induces social changes, (4) the holding of numerous elections of local and national levels which are competed among more than one candidate, various in kind and frequent, regularly scheduled, participated by a good portion of non-ruling party candidates, the ruling party used to tolerate non-threatening competition, and gradualism in enhancing participation. After 1986, competition among political parties were gradually liberalized and by 1993 competition of the Sartorian sense is established. Whether toe ROC will become a two-party system or one-party predominant system will be determined by the political development in the future