Journal of Electoral Studies

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Home Issues Backissues Volume 31, No.1 A Study of the Association between the Idle Space and the Voting Rate of the Re-election of the Ruling Party in Taiwan

A Study of the Association between the Idle Space and the Voting Rate of the Re-election of the Ruling Party in Taiwan

Wen-Yen Wu
2020 / 11
Volume 27, No.2

pp.127-176
10.6612/tjes.202011_27(2).0004
Paper

Abstract

This study aims to review the causes of infrastructure becoming an idle space and the relationship between public investment and the voting rate in presidential elections. The research applied structuration theory as an analysis framework, and screened 440 items of idle space data of the Public Works Committee, and used the socio-economic statistical data of the important indicators of the Open Data in Government networks. The spatial analysis method is used to establish the vote-rate model in 2004 and 2012 for analysis. The research results show that there is a significant and positive relationship between public investment and vote rate in presidential campaigns.
According to the structuration theoretical explanation, under distribution politics, public investment has become a form of ribbon-cutting media and blind investment. Electoral political considerations are better than market assessments. The “ritual” of election mobilization and the habitus of the system that consumes budgets explain the cause of idle space. There is an urgent need to establish professional rational assessment, community participation, information disclosure, public supervision, and accountability mechanisms to improve the phenomenon of political interference in elections and public investment.

Keywords

Idle Space

Public Investment

Structuration

Spatial Analysis

Electoral Culture