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This study looks at the consequences of party switching in an Asian third-wave democracy, Taiwan. We examine some of the key theoretical questions related to party switching. Earlier studies show that politicians in the USA and Spain that switch parties pay an electoral price. We test whether Taiwanese party switchers face a similar punishment. We also address two theoretical puzzles in the party switching literature. First, while the key theme of explaining why politicians switch focuses on their rational decisions to improve their career prospects, studies that examine the consequences of switching show that the decision actually undermines electoral prospects. A second puzzle addressed is that though party switching is expected to undermine party system stability, Taiwan shows that a country can have moderate levels of party switching but still feature a very stable party system.
