Taiwan’s Deeply Divided Government
Wednesday, February 4, 2026
9:00 -10:00 am (Eastern Time) | 10:00-11:00 pm (Taiwan Standard Time)
Online only via Zoom
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About the event
Ever since elections in 2024 gave the presidency to one party and the legislature to its rivals, Taiwan’s political arena has been the scene of non-stop drama. When the Nationalist Party and its ally in the legislature tried to expand their power to oversee the executive branch, the Constitutional Court ruled them out of line and the legislature responded by shutting down the court. When the Democratic Progressive Party-led executive branch claimed power to exercise a pocket veto of legislation it didn’t like, the opposition in the legislature began a process to impeach the president even though they lack the numbers to achieve their goal. Nathan Batto, an associate research fellow at the Institute of Political Science in Taiwan’s Academia Sinica and expert on Taiwan’s elections, will explain how Taiwan’s government structure, political culture, and other factors have contributed to the current crisis, how the Taiwanese public is responding, and the possible impact on Taiwan’s delicate international standing.
About the speaker
Nathan Batto is an associate research fellow at the Academia Sinica’s Institute of Political Science and National Chengchi University’s Election Study Center. He researches legislative organization and election systems, with a focus on Taiwan. His articles have been published in journals including Journal of Politics, Electoral Studies, and Legislative Studies Quarterly. His recent book, Making Punches Count: The Individual Logic of Legislative Brawls (Oxford University Press, 2024), explores why democratically elected representatives participate in physical violence in legislatures with a special focus on Taiwan and Ukraine but also drawing on the experience of South Korea, Japan, Mexico, South Africa, and the US. It was awarded the 2025 Richard Fenno Prize for outstanding book in legislative studies. Batto also has written about political dynasties in Taiwan, populist rhetoric, women in electoral politics, and the decline of the Nationalist Party (Kuomintang). He holds a MA in political science from NCCU (1999), and received his PhD from the University of California, San Diego in 2007. He is the author of the blog Frozen Garlic, which provides detailed and accessible analysis of elections in Taiwan.