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Local Factions after Twin Transitions of Government in Taiwan: Decaying or Transforming?

Local factions and their interactions with the Kuomintang (KMT) has always been an area of great interest to students of Taiwan politics. They have been active in Taiwan for nearly half a century. There are changes along the way of course, and they had been surviving quite well. But a good thing never lasts. The accelerated changes occurred in the last ten, fifteen years brought about a complete new backdrop for the factions. The KMT no longer sits atop all by itself in the political arena. Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) had taken and then lost the presidency in the last ten years. And there are other changes that are also bearing down on them, so they are literally fighting for survival now. But will local factions be finally at the last leg of their useful life? Or there is light at the end of the tunnel for them still? When Lin-Pie in Chiayi County was merged into DPP, the local DPP party machine was literally transformed into a Lie-Pie machine which is an illustrative example of a possible path to the future. This article looks to provide some light in answering the question above. But not before we walk through the history of the factions, mainly based on two perspectives: the patron-client hierarchism perspective and the social network perspective.The interactions between the factions and the KMT, and later on with the DPP are also looked at, again, in the two perspectives mentioned. We highlight the changes happened recently, some of the responses by the factions and the political parties, and the result of the responses. Then, the specific cases that we believe could help us understand better the current state of how they are doing are presented. Along the way, the impacts they have on the long democratic march of Taiwan can also be seen.